Wondered if anyone (either preparing for retirement or there already) had planned/created a part-time work gig for after ‘regular’ work ended?
I was thinking about new, perhaps remote/portable type gigs/jobs that could provide some security when the full-time paycheck is not coming in but would have some flexibility.
The stuff I’ve seen on the internet seems hyper-specific (dental hygienist?).
Thanks for any thoughts!
The only thing I’m willing to do in retirement is consulting.
I’m also a part time consultant— getting more and more part time. haha
I’m hoping my husband follows in his dad’s footsteps and works as a sports official. He recently passed at 95, had 4 hip replacements, and finally hung up his whistle in his 80’s. My husband has the credentials to ref soccer in our county (he does the classes with our son). Flexible schedule, great outdoors, exercise, socializing, and watching sports. The money is pretty good as well. When our kids were growing up he must’ve coached dozens of teams, tball, grade school basketball, rec and travel soccer from first grade until varsity soccer spring league. With 5 kids, including b/g twins, he was out every night! It was an adjustment for me.
Not sure if this article was written by artificial intelligence or lack thereof! 
Many of the jobs listed require specialized training, licensing, certification, and/or years of experience.Definitely not suitable for an average retiree!
That’s exactly what my husband is doing. He’s always umped, but now he can do more games. It’s a win/win/win. He loves it, the money is pretty good, and they are in desperate need of (good) umps.
I do short term per diem work in my field and some very limited private work. I did a LOT in the first 11 years I was retired, but I’m doing less now.
I have had a series of part time jobs since I stopped working full time and became a stay at home mom (30 years ago). My current one is a part time job working fully from home for a bilingual book publisher. It is a small company owned by a local women. My previous part time gigs were all in person - admin asst. job in a school, tech job in a school, library assistant, and finance department assistant. I have considered myself very lucky to have found these various jobs that met the needs I had over time.
I think you can luck out with a local small business. Some of these are looking for reliable workers with experience.
I did consulting during Covid when all jobs were remote. There’s no way I would return to the office now and most jobs require to be in the office. That article makes no sense since the only jobs that pay somewhat reasonable are nursing which require a lot of certifications. Fast food workers get $20 per hour here so $11 for school bus drivers???
I do bookkeeping for a quilt shop. About ten hours a week. Totally flexible. Accounts payable, payroll, etc. Keeps me around fabric and people who sew.
My part time jobs over the years: cleaning houses, filing for a medical supply company, school playground/lunchroom attendant, substitute teacher. The only one I would have considered for a part time retirement job is sub - but my teacher friends tell me it’s just not worth it these days. You’d think filing would be a nice, easy job … but it’s incredibly physical & I know my back would yell at me. So far, I haven’t felt a burning desire to work, but I might if I were to stumble across the right part time job. It would need to be very flexible!
My current full time job is changing to part-time as my coworker wants to job share. I am not interested in that as my responsibilities would be primarily clerical. There’s nothing wrong with that type of work, I just don’t want to do it. I’ve always looked towards retirement as offering an opportunity to explore volunteer opportunities, see what I could offer a non profit. There are quite a few parttime opportunities where I live - full time with benefits a bit more challenging.
School bus drivers in our county start at $23/hr. Drivers are in short supply.
I would think that would be a challenging job. A friend from church drove a school bus after retiring from a very demanding management role, though, and he loved it.
Absolutely!!! Youth leagues and schools need refs and coaches. We also need bus drivers to pick up routes to games - those are usually with coaching staff on board so behavior and expectations should be clear.
A local SD had a banner “bus drivers wanted” on one of their school’s fences… $32/hr. No thanks! 
I think in retirement I might like to do a handyman business. One where I could do odd/small jobs that regular contractors might not want. I think there would be plenty of demand, especially once I got stated, and I could pick and choose what I wanted to take on. Need some painting done, a ceiling fan hung, a door replaced, crown molding installed, some bushes trimmed, a load of debris taken to the dump, etc. I think it could be quite profitable.
I’m laughing at the smiling bus driver pic in the article 
That seems like it would be a special kind of h*ll and not at all relaxing. My grandfather did it for years in his small town, but no thanks!
I would love to find something for no more than 20-25 hours a week that challenges my brain. In the past few years I’ve done part time legal work and also worked for a small local business that makes gourmet pretzels.
Your phone would be ringing off the hook where I live! BTW, I need a smoke detector battery changed in my 2-story family room 
Thanks so much for these tips and insights!
I also had to laugh a bit at the article suggesting jobs like school bus driver. It certainly could work for some, but having responsibility for the lives of 20+ (yelling?) kids wouldn’t be my first choice!
In my field I can’t immediately see a job for consulting (although some folks do come back part time).
My ideal would be to keep contributing in a substantive way, but part time and in a form that would allow for long periods of travel.
I’ve also been listing to some “FI” (financial independence) podcasts and one of the topics discussed frequently is passive income - something that keeps generating revenue after you’ve completed the labor (like writing a book or creating an online course) vs. getting paid a flat rate for your labor/time.
I guess the difference might be refurbishing a dresser and selling it for $100 vs. filming yourself doing it as a YouTube tutorial and getting ad revenue and affiliate link income from the video.
This concept was relatively new to me (lol) and really interesting! Although I can see the internet is already fairly saturated with monetized “Let me teach you how to do this…” content!
I think you have to define what you want your time commitment to be and to also think of something you love and have talent for.
Refinishing furniture is hard work and while there is plenty of furniture out there to flip, if you buy an older dresser to flip for $25 and spend 10 hours to flip it to sell for $125 dollars you just made $10/hour for a lot of hard labor - ooops don’t forget to take out the money spent for stripper, sandpaper, finish, etc!
The resell mark set can be hot. Find a niche to sell on eBay and you can do pretty well but again you have to find the items, create the listing, communicate with potential buyers and then package the items and make post office trips to complete the sale. Plus store those items in your home until they sell. (Hint: choose something like small items to selk!)
I think @MarylandJOE has a fantastic idea. What are you good at? Editing? Customer service? Accounting? Part time in the public??