PT Consulting Gigs After Retirement

[Escapevelocity]

I keep hearing about post retirement consulting for “fun”. I really can’t imagine what kind of consulting gig would actually be fun. I suppose some consulting in my field of expertise might be “tolerable” if it was limited to attending meetings and offering my opinions and feedback without any requirements for writing reports, building models or PowerPoint decks. I hope to never do any of those activities ever again.

Would like to hear your experiences with this whether it was your own or someone that you know.

 

[Scubamax]

I have done consulting since leaving full time work in 2014. Did a couple of bigger projects in first 18 months along with a couple of smaller ad hoc engagements. Now not as busy but still billing small amounts this year.

I enjoy it for the mental stimulation and engagement and while it can involve reports and other work product it’s not terribly burdensome. Plus I remind myself that I am getting paid by the hour so an additional revision means more cash at the end of the line.

But it’s all about ones attitude. If you don’t want to do this sort of thing that’s fine. If you do, name your price to make it worthwhile.

All of the gigs came from people knowing me and they approached me, so I am not pursuing work. I have also said “no” a couple of times to opportunities. If the work dries out to nothing that’s ok...got lots to do in non consultation matters, but it does give me some satisfaction to still have an oar in the water.

 

[Escapevelocity]

I have done consulting since leaving full time work in 2014. Did a couple of bigger projects in first 18 months along with a couple of smaller ad hoc engagements. Now not as busy but still billing small amounts this year.

I enjoy it for the mental stimulation and engagement and while it can involve reports and other work product it’s not terribly burdensome. Plus I remind myself that I am getting paid by the hour so an additional revision means more cash at the end of the line.

But it’s all about ones attitude. If you don’t want to do this sort of thing that’s fine. If you do, name your price to make it worthwhile.

All of the gigs came from people knowing me and they approached me, so I am not pursuing work. I have also said “no” a couple of times to opportunities. If the work dries out to nothing that’s ok...got lots to do in non consultation matters, but it does give me some satisfaction to still have an oar in the water.

That sounds pretty great and I'm not saying that I wouldn't consider doing something similar. I was struggling with the adjective "fun" that I've seen in this context in a number of forum threads on this topic. I guess my definition of "fun" doesn't involve owing anyone a "work product".

 

[twaddle]

I did some consulting on prior art for some patent litigation. It was interesting, took very little time, and there was a passive income aspect to it if I could "rent" out some devices I had that were relevant to the patents.

My dad had similar consulting gigs for expert witness testimony. It kept him engaged at a level he liked.

 

[Ronstar]

I had a couple of roadway right of way survey projects ongoing when I retired. Eminent Domain cases involving the location and existence of roadways.

I agreed to work as a consultant as needed through to the end. I had to do some expert witness testimony on one and the other was settled out of court. It was interesting and somewhat fun getting back into some of the old work the first few years after retiring. But I no longer have any desire to do anything work related.

 

[38Chevy454]

I have said many times that the beauty of retirement is you can do what you want to do. Working because you want to, rather than have to.

So if some consulting work fits into your retirement, that's fine. The extra income never hurts. Give yourself some additional discretionary money.

 

[Animorph]

I did some part time work for my old boss who I really liked. I enjoyed the technical work. One of the reasons I retired was to avoid the meetings, which this did for me.

The boss did have some consulting gigs that were basically meeting with a company and evaluating or generating some technical ideas for them. Sounds like torture to me.

 

[6miths]

I'm the same in terms of the mental stimulation and engagement with a world I was once immersed in in a high stakes way. Now low stakes (for me at least) and pays a bit, let's me go some nice places once in awhile, meet some interesting people and is in some ways a way to keep giving back. Only very occasionally does it reach 'not fun' levels and I can do it totally at my leisure.

 

[Sunset]

I do it a bit, I get to stick some money into my self-401K Roth and regular Roth (no sense sticking it into a IRA as we are doing roth conversions).

It's interesting to talk to the "old" gang.

 

[savory]

I did a little for friends and organizations that I liked. I found it fun and low pressure. I also got to use some skills that I used earlier in my career when I was more hands on. Looking back, I would do it again.

 

[Sojourner]

When I decided to get off the full-time treadmill about 7 years ago, I worked out an arrangement with my employer where I would do part-time consulting work for a generous hourly rate. Over the following three years, I did quite a bit a work for them, none of which I'd actually call "fun", but all of which I would call "worth my time". The part-time work was extremely helpful, both financially and mentally, during my transition from full-time work to full-time ER. "Fun" wasn't what I needed or what I expected, and I doubt I would ever use that adjective to describe any sort of work-for-hire that involved generous enough compensation to motivate me.

 

[aja8888]

I keep hearing about post retirement consulting for “fun”. I really can’t imagine what kind of consulting gig would actually be fun. I suppose some consulting in my field of expertise might be “tolerable” if it was limited to attending meetings and offering my opinions and feedback without any requirements for writing reports, building models or PowerPoint decks. I hope to never do any of those activities ever again.

Consultant for 20+ years here in oil & gas.

Yeah, we all dream of what you expressed above, but no one doing PT (or full time) consulting is paid to just show up and look smart.

 

[Montecfo]

Consultant for 20+ years here in oil & gas.

Yeah, we all dream of what you expressed above, but no one doing PT (or full time) consulting is paid to just show up and look smart.

Wow. Too bad that would we right in my strike zone.

Seriously, I'm kind of with the OP. Every gig I think about i eventually reject because it either seems like more responsibility than I want or require me to meet a schedule. That just does not seem fun, especially if it is recurring. Plus I love just going away on travel whenever I want.

Plus I'm not really looking for income but might be nice to have some mental work along the lines of my old training (finance, taxes, administration).

I did see one interesting gig, that sounded like it would be pretty much full time for about 6 months. Wouldn't be terrible in the winter. But that was only once and that was while I was still working.

Maybe at some point. Or maybe not.

 

[Finance Dave]

I keep hearing about post retirement consulting for “fun”. I really can’t imagine what kind of consulting gig would actually be fun. I suppose some consulting in my field of expertise might be “tolerable” if it was limited to attending meetings and offering my opinions and feedback without any requirements for writing reports, building models or PowerPoint decks. I hope to never do any of those activities ever again.

Would like to hear your experiences with this whether it was your own or someone that you know.

Don't think I'd call mine "consulting", but I do handyman work about 4-6 hours/week now. The nice thing about not needing the money is that you can pick and choose what jobs you want. I had a lady call me that wanted one screen repaired. There's no way I can cover my cost to go give an estimate and travel time to her house for that small of a job...so I declined. Some say that I should have done it...as she may have wanted to "test me" before giving me bigger jobs...oh well.

There are some great tax deductions you can get also if you are self-employed, although that is a secondary feature IMO.