Best Jobs for Retirees

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You made it! You have finally retired. This is a huge milestone in your life. After decades of working, you put in the time and can now reap the benefits. Time to pick up a new hobby, travel, and spent time with your family. However, what if you are feeling bored and want to stay working? Here are some of the best jobs for retirees.

Why Working in Retirement is a Good Idea

An unfortunate fact is that many people have not saved enough when they retire. Factor in that people are now living longer, and there is a big chance you may outlive your savings. With rising inflation, your fixed income may not be able to support you in the long term. Plus, who knows how long Social Security will last and what future increases in payments look like. This is all alarming. A recent study showed that nearly 40% of America’s middle-class will experience poverty in retirement.

If you are frightened by this outcome, you have several options. The most popular one is finding a part time job to offset some of the expenses of retirement. A part time job or even a side gig can be a great way to help pay for things like groceries without tapping into your dwindling nest egg. At the same time, working part time still leaves you time to enjoy retirement.

Below are some of the great job options for retirees.

Tutoring

Throughout your life and career, you have most likely picked up some great life skills. Depending on your career path, you may have learned skills in engineering, math, accounting, finance, and more. This puts you at a great position to teach others who are starting off their careers. One particular thing you can be doing is tutoring.

If you have experience in a school system, for instance if you were a teacher or school administrator, this should be right up your ally.

There are many tutoring opportunities out there. You can work for an online tutoring company, a school, or even venture out and start you own small tutoring business. One of the best benefits of this is that tutoring can be very flexible. You can set your own hours, and in most cases set your own rates. On average, a tutor can easily charge upwards of $25 dollars an hour. If you have a small list of clients and work with each of them once a week, you can easily bring in several hundred dollars a week. This will be more than enough to offset some of your retirement expenses.

Teaching

Another one of the best jobs for retirees is teaching. After years and years of being on the job, you have some great real world experience and know the ins and outs of an industry. Private and public colleges and universities are always looking for adjunct professors that can teach a class or two every semester.

The types of classes can range from your more basis 101 classes. However, you may also get the opportunity to teach high level courses. An advantage you have teaching is that many educational institutions want people to teach that have real experience they can pass on to their students.

Teaching at a college or university can be a great gig. First of all, the students there want to be there so you don’t have to worry about them not respecting you. Secondly, you still have some flexibility. Many courses only meet once or twice a week, plus some may be entirely online. This still gives you the freedom to enjoy retirement.

The type of college or university you teach at will dictate how much you can make. You can expect to earn anywhere from $1,500 per semester per course, all the way up to over $3,000. Teach one or two courses per semester, and you can be looking at a pretty decent part time salary for a retiree.

Rent Out Your House

If you are retired, it is most likely that if you have children, they are adults. This means that they probably don’t live with you anymore. If you have not downsized your house yet, you may have an empty room, or empty basement apartment. Don’t let this space go to waste! You can easily find a renter. Although this is not necessarily a job for retirees, it is still an opportunity to get some income from something you hopefully have already paid for.

There are several benefits to renting out part of your house to a renter. First and foremost is the income. You can expect to charge $300-$500 a month if you are just renting out a room. If you have a studio apartment on the side of your home, or a basement apartment, you can easily charge more. You can find willing renters to pay anywhere from $600-$1,200 based on the condition of the space, as well as where you are geographically located.

One of the downsides of retirement is that it may be lonely. Renting out a part of your house can be a great way to find someone to communicate with. They may also be able to help you around the house with chores. This can include possibly mowing the lawn or doing other landscaping. You can discount them a piece of their rent or even pay them cash.

There are a ton of online apps that can help you in this process. Airbnb is the most popular one. You can even create a classified ad, or post that you are looking for a renter on your (or your children’s) social media accounts.

Become a Driver for Hire

The gig economy has created so many opportunities. One of the most popular side gigs/side hustles that have come about in the last decade is becoming a driver.

There are several different ways you can go about this. The most common one is by using an app like Uber or Lyft. If you have experience driving, or have a nice personal vehicle, you may even be able to get a job as an actual driver for a limo or car for hire company.

Depending on the route you take, you can have a ton of flexibly. Are you bored and have nothing to do? Then go on your ride hailing app and start driving.

While this opportunity does give you the chance to make some income, there are some associated expenses. Fares can range from a couple bucks upwards, so after it all it may not be totally worth it. Plus, if you are using your personal car, you will have to factor things like vehicle deprecation and maintenance expense. That being said, becoming a driver for hire can be a great way to meet and talk to people, all while getting you out of your house and driving around.

Best Jobs for Retirees – Summary

If you are retired, bored, and need some extra income, there are many opportunities for you. For instance, you can become a tutor or even a part time/adjunct professor. If you don’t want to work but still get some cash on the side, think about renting out a room or part of your house. Lastly, you can even become a driver.

The opportunities mentioned here are great. This list was not exhaustive by any means. Other jobs include becoming a pet sitter, baby sitter/nanny, and much more.

No matter what type of income generating opportunity, job, or side gig you choose, the income you make will help offset the expenses of retirement. Finding a side gig can help you save more of the money you put aside for retirement and enable you to spend more money on the things you love – or just help paying the bills!