Working at part time jobs that are very different than your career? (55, move)
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You may want to consider volunteer work, which could lead to part time work, or you could go back to school to learn a new skill. Where I live, adults can enroll in programs sponsored by the school district, and/or community colleges. So, you could become a certified nursing assistant, practical nurse, cake decorator, landscaper, etc...
Or you could become a Walmart greeter, supermarket bagger, landscape assistant, tax preparer (see H&R Block).
Wouldn't that be fun! Our genius Mathjak, strumming on a stage-I'd love to see it.
I'm trying to write again. It's been so long since I wrote anything that wasn't instructions on how to do a grant that it is going to take me a long time to get out of that mindset.
I love that we can dream and recapture some of who we were, before responsibilities got in our way.
I'm not near retirement yet, but have thought about the same thing (if I actually CAN retire when the time comes!) I look to the difference between vocation and avocation. If I can volunteer, or even work part-time and something of interest, I believe I would still feel "productive".
I just retired from a long-time mid-level admin position (ie desk) and am also looking for fun part-time work. So far, I have considered working for an estate sale company, an environmental nonprofit, retail stocking for Pottery Barn, sales at garden shop. Still trying to figure out...but finally having the option to try something totally different is great.
I worked in a Dr's office for 17 years, took 5 off and got a part time job as a server for 6 months and now I work part time as a cashier at Cracker Barrel. I love it and it is only 12 - 15 hours a week. Go for it. You can always quit and try something new.
I briefly considered retiring early, doing some travel and then getting a part time job. The math did not work out. I stayed in my pre-retirement job a bit longer and had a better financial outcome. Of course, this sort of calculation depends on the relative pay levels. I was paid well before retirement and would have been paid a fraction of that amount with a different job outside of my area of expertise.
I also knew that I really did not want to work in retirement. First I have too much to do and too little time even without working. I certainly would not want to be tied down to a work schedule. At this point, I can and do take off and travel for months at a time.
After I had been retired for several years I took a part time job at 64 that sounded like fun and it was. One of the main things was I knew I could walk away from it at anytime as I did not need the job. I stayed at it for 4 years. My wife did the same thing. When the pressure of needing a job is off your shoulders than it is a whole different ball game.
The two main problems I have seen are those that needed a part time job and those expecting to make as much as they did before as in work 50% less for 50% less money. Quite often it is work 50% less for25% of the money one was making.
Yea - the other day I was tempted to ask if they needed help at the local Dollar store. Stocking shelves. They had this OLD guy doing it and I thought he needed some help!
Sometimes I run out of things to do here at home. Well, not really, I just need a reason to do them and I think being on a schedule would help - lol.
I've been retired almost 4 years now. I am just beginning to feel like I would like to work to earn a little spare cash and just be able to interact somewhat with other people. I don't want anything like my old job which had become, for me, a high stress thing. I like all these ideas.
I wonder about the suggestions of physical labor in retirement.
It depends upon one's age.....late 50's, 60's, 70's. 80's.
But standing on one's feet non-stop for 4 or 6 or 8 hours straight is not an option for many older people in order to bag groceries, be a bartender, waitressing, being a cashier who isn't allowed to sit, a sales clerk who walks around helping customers & then rings them up at cash register, etc.
And suggestions of a cleaning service where one cleans homes and offices is way out of reach for many people even in their late 50's due to the extensive non-stop physical exertion of cleaning extensively for 4 or 6 or 8 hours straight for days in a row or every other day.
Many people who have done physical labor to make a living all their lives often retire in their mid-50's because the physical labor requires too much physical exertion and endurance.
Some younger people who suggest such things as a cleaning service or jobs requiring standing for 4 or 8 hours straight
might not realize that as people grow older for a good number that involves a loss of strength and a loss of endurance. This loss of endurance and strength hits some sooner than others.
As stated in a different thread, people who are younger may not or probably not realize what it can feel like to be 74.
(and yes, I know that ER can climb a ladder and do outside painting at his condo development)
Last edited by matisse12; 02-20-2016 at 02:12 PM..
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