10 ways to create retirement income

I talk about my thing here all the time but my wife has been volunteering at a pretty big animal rescue since 2005, she's been the president for about 8 years and the growth has been very impressive. She has played the long game because she genuinely wanted to, and has made herself very marketable if we ever need that.

Having hobbies and interests is important for several reasons. If you're all in on a hobby or two then you know whether there is the potential to monetize it at all and if so what that might require.

Something that requires a class and certificate so there is at least some minimal barrier to entry. EMT is a good example.

Have an accounting background? You could work for someone like H&R Block doing taxes for people. Did you see the recent movie Nomadland? Part of the story is that Frances McDormand's character works at an Amazon distribution center close to Christmas time. This used to be a thing, I wrote about it a couple of times ages ago, not sure if it still is a thing.

This requires staying current in whatever thing you might teach/tutor/coach but that is doable for many people.

The runway for this involves staying current in your industry and some level of networking ability, be likeable.

We've had very good luck with this but not everyone will.

For years I used to blog about a neighbor I called Mr. Backhoe. Where we live there is a lot of need for work involving big, yellow equipment. This neighbor recently passed away but for years after his retirement he did backhoe work, had more than he wanted. Back then he was charging $60-$65/hour, fair market now might be $90-$100/hour. When I blogged about this I'd usually quip "how many hours at $65/per (now maybe $95) would you need to subsidize your income?"

This is also something I've been writing about for ages and was also part of Nomadland. She worked at some grasslands NPS site and I think at Badlands National Park.

Here's a link about this one.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/style/dog-walkers-six-figures-100k-nyc.html

Because it is related, dog sitting. Our dog-sitter had more gigs than she wanted when she was doing it more actively. This legitimately subsidized her income.