RETIREMENT
JOBS FOR THE RETIRED AND SOON-TO-BE-RETIRED
Why Retirees Work When They Don't Have
To

Welcome to the Retirement Jobs Webpage on the Retirment Cafe. I have included information
relating to retirement jobs and retirement businesses for retirees too broke or too bored with being
retired.
Surveys show that nowadays many individuals plan to continue working in some capacity after they retire.
For instance, according to a recent survey, the Unretirement(SM) Index, the economic
downturn has had an impact on retirement planning and where to retire. Over half (55 percent) of
Americans now plan to work past age 67, and the number who plan to work full-time at that age is also at a new
high (about 28 percent).
With economic events forcing more people of retirement age to defer retirement, coupled with
fewer traditional retirement income sources such as defined benefit pension plans, people in or close to retirement
are seeking alternative income sources. The most popular choice is a retirement job.
Having said this, retirees with retirement jobs want to work fewer hours, be their own boss, or
switch to a career they find more personally rewarding, even if it pays less. Indeed, choice retiree jobs have
become desirable and hard to get in some cases due to the recession. However, there are still quite a few jobs
available to retirees. Some may even choose to go back to school to learn new skills or maybe even teach a class at
the local community college. Transport jobs seem to be pretty popular among retirees as well.
The reasons that many retirees keep on working at least part-time in a retirement job are
numerous.
Reasons Why Retirees Have a Retirement Job or Create a Retirement Business When They
Don't Have To:
- A retirment job provides a purpose.
- Jobs for retirees provide structure.
- Intellectual stimulation can be had from working with bright people.
- Having a retirement job can get retirees out of their spouses' hair.
- A creative fun retirement job can helps conquer boredom.
- A work environment provides more social interaction than staying at home.
- Jobs in retirement contribute to a more active
retirement.
- Retirement jobs and retirement businesses can provice a chance to meet interesting people
- An opportunity to form friendships with like-minded colleagues and enjoy their companionships after
they leave the job
- Starting a retirement business can provide a sense of self-worth from feeling productive.
- A love for the field of endeavor is another reason to start a retirement business.
- Retirement jobs and retirement businesses provide retirees a chance to put their creative abilities to
great use.
- Fun retirement jobs are plain fun.
- Without a retirement job to keep them busy, many retirees just don't know how to retire happy.
For most baby boomers, the new concept of retirement — an ideal mix of interesting work and
leisure — is much more appealing than the old concept of retirement — years of endless leisure as a reward for
years of hard work.
Getting a [retirement] job and trading your time
for money may seem like a good idea. There’s only one problem with it. It’s
stupid! It’s the stupidest way you can possibly generate income! This is truly
income for dummies. Why is getting a [retirement] job so dumb? Because you only get paid
when you’re working.
— Steve Pavlina
According to demographers, most baby boomers want to retire without retiring because they want
to retire happy. In short, the ultimate retirement plan for high achievers is —
don't retire!
Note: The retirement quotes and sayings on this webpage come from several
sources including The Retirement Quotes Cafe and the international bestseller How to Retire
Happy, Wild, and Free.

It's better to
be out of money than out of new creative ideas on how to make money.
— Spiritual Rule of Money
Top-20 Retirement Jobs According to
AARP
First Top-10 Retirement Job
Industries
According to
AARP
- Nursing
- Health Care Technician
- Health Care Administration (Non-Medical)
- Teaching Assistant and Aide
- Contract or Temporary Professional
- General Merchandise and Grocery Retailing
- Specialty Retailing
- Accounting & Finance and Tax Preparers
- Banking and Lending
- Car/Van/Light Truck or Bus Driver (See article below)
Second Top-10 Retirement Job
Industries
According to
AARP
- Customer Service or Technology Representative
- Nonprofit Services Delivery & Administration
- Insurance and Investment Services
- Home Health Care or Personal Aide
- Hospitality and Food-Service Staff
- Office Clerical and Administrative
- Self-Employment
- Franchise or Business Owner
- Small Employers
- Federal, State, or Municipal Governments
Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too
Smart to Work in Corporations

Career Success Without
a Real Job is the ideal retirement book for retirees and the soon-to-be retired who would like to
work in retirement to increase their retirement income but not in a traditional corporate job.
Chapter 6 is titled Prosperity Comes When You Do the Right Things with Your
Life. This chapter includes topics such as:
Other helpful topics throughout this retirement book include:
-
The Work Model for People Too Prosperous to Do Mornings
-
You Don’t Have to Be Able to Walk on Water to Make Money While You Sleep
-
Becoming an Internet Marketing Genius Is a Lot Easier than You Think

Retire to a Fun Retirement Job That You Love Instead of Staying in the Boring Job That
You Love to Hate
Note: This article is exerpted from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (The World's Best
Retirement Book).

If you have the retirement income issue
handled, you may be wondering whether there is life after retirement. There is good news here as well. With a
retirement pension, you can retire early from your present boring job and find a retirement job that is more
interesting, even if it does not pay as much. This will make your retirement life more exciting and satisfying
than your work life.
Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a
career. Trust what inspires you. From this decision alone will come over a third of your
satisfaction or misery in your life.
— from The
Joy of Not Working
In fact, many soon-to-be retirees intend to find some sort of new jobs for retirement in order
that they enjoy retirement life. A survey by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. found that 57 percent of baby boomers
between fifty and fifty-nine want a fun job in their retirement years. About 70 percent of women want a retirement
job that gives them purpose and 48 percent of men said it is important to have such work. Overall, almost 60
percent of men and women indicated that they would like fun retirement jobs in the non-profit or public-service
sectors.
What is it that you like doing? If you don’t
like it, get out of it, because you’ll be lousy at it. You don’t have to stay with a job for
the rest of your life, because if you don’t like it you’ll never be successful in it.
— Lee Iacocca
A similar survey conducted by Merrill Lynch found that 76 percent of baby boomers plan to pursue
some kind of careers in retirement. Many are planning active retirements that include a variety of creative
retirement jobs. One of the people surveyed stated, “I’d like to travel a lot when I retire, but I’d also like
to work part-time — not at my current job — but something slower paced and more fun!”
You know you are on the road to success if you
would do your job, and not be paid for it.
— Oprah Winfrey
Another baby boomer claimed, “I plan on spending my retirement giving back. I’d like to do
volunteer work in the area of special education. I’ll maybe do a little consulting to have extra money to help
others but for the most part I will continue with the work I love but will be doing it without pay.” Still
another remarked, “Health permitting, I plan to work part-time at a book store (I’m in IT now) and do some
traveling.”
Clearly, for those stuck in a job rut, early retirement from their present career is a way to
replace it with a retirement job filled with joy and meaning. For retirees who are financially stable, starting
retirement businesses is another option. “Boredom is a key reason why retirees start a retirement business,” says
George Krassner, a consultant and lecturer at Durham Technical and Wake Technical Community Colleges and in Duke
Continuing Education small-business workshops. Some retirees try consulting. Others turn a hobby into a business.
Still others will start franchises. All these can lead to Career Success
Without a Real Job.
If you are retired or soon-to-be retired, you may find Dorothy Cantor’s What
Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up: Starting the Next Chapter of Your
Life (Little Brown & Company, 2001) helpful. This self-help tome is
directed at retirees, wannabe retirees, and mid-life job swappers. Cantor outlines practical ways for readers to
figure out strengths and interests so that they can set out a blueprint for the last third of their lives. The
book is especially useful to people in middle age who have the sense that golf and bridge and visiting
grandchildren can’t be all that there is to retirement.
I believe you are your work. Don’t trade the stuff of your life,
time, for nothing more than dollars. That’s a rotten bargain.
— Rita Mae Brown
Have you ever heard of a wage slave? Even
worse ... are you one? Wage slaves may live in big houses. They might drive Porsches. It
doesn't matter how "rich" you look, if you can't walk away from your job — even for a
second — because you would no longer be able to pay the bills, you're a wage slave.
— Sara Glakas
Leaving a traditional job for self-employment or an unreal job can offer a smooth financial and
lifestyle transition into retirement or semi-retirement. For retirees who find their true calling, retirement
actually becomes semi-retirement because they work part-time at an unreal retirement job that allows them to work
according to their own schedule.
Semi-retirement is a time to work for the love of work rather than for the love of money. Going
to work when one knows one doesn’t have to work in itself can be satisfying. More important, working at a job in
retirement one loves instead of a job that one loves to hate is highly rewarding.
Take, for example, Ron Sadownick of Nanaimo, B.C., who retired at the age of fifty-six. While he
was a schoolteacher, Sadownick’s passion was making fused-glass art. Taking early retirement allowed him to devote
much more time to his creative pursuit. Because twenty-five galleries in B.C. sell his work, his hobby earns him
$1,000 a month, a nice supplement to his $28,000-a-year pension.
As for Ron Sadownick, working for many baby boomers will be out of interest rather than
necessity, with most of those who plan to work during retirement planning to move into a completely new career. If
you are one of these baby boomers contemplating early retirement, it’s easy to dream about how you’ll spend your
retirement days. It’s entirely another matter to make those dreams come true, particularly if you don’t have a
major purpose. Several research studies show that retirees who have no real purpose to their lives are prone to
feel unneeded and fit for nothing, even severely depressed.
One research study was conducted by Jungmeem Kim and Phyllis Moen of Cornell University on
retired men and women based on the definition of “retired” as eligible for or receiving Social Security, an
employee pension, or both. Kim and Moen concluded that regardless of their income, health, or age, retired males
have high morale and little depression if they adopt second careers. Much higher levels of depression and lower
morale are experienced by men who make retirement permanent. Retired women have the most difficulty with morale and
depression if they are retired and their husbands aren’t at home.
Seek above all for a game worth playing. Such is the oracle to
modern man. Having found the game, play it with intensity; play as if your life and sanity
depend on it. (They do depend on it).
— D. S. Ropp
Many individuals are lucky enough to have had their career work and some passionate pursuit be
one and the same. Thus, they can continue happily working part-time in their field well past retirement, without
having to discover their true calling. Unfortunately, this is not true for many retirees and soon-to-be retirees.
If they are not able to discover their mission in life, the prescription for these retirees and soon-to-be retirees
is a feel-good job.
By a feel-good job, I am referring to what some semi-retired people call a “fun retirement job.”
For example, Cliff and Babette Marten of Des Moines, Iowa, get their kicks in retirement by driving vehicles across
Iowa, across the Midwest, and even clear across the United States. They get a chance to drive many types of
automobiles — including Cadillacs and Lexuses
— and they get paid for it. “About every drive is a different
situation,” Cliff Marten, seventy-seven at the time, told the Des Moines Register.
For a fee, the Martens drive new and used cars for Betts Cadillac,
a Des Moines auto dealership. The couple is in a pool of fifteen to twenty drivers who drive cars to dealerships
in other states or to private individuals who have purchased a car from Betts. The drivers are paid by the hour
and reimbursed for expenses such as food, tolls, and lodging.
On out-of-state deliveries, Cliff Marten will drive the car to be delivered and Babette Marten
will follow in another car that will later be used to bring them back home. The Martens have driven from Iowa to
Florida, California, Michigan, and Connecticut, and passed through many states in between. They sometimes get the
opportunity to visit family or friends along the way. “We get paid to have fun,” declared Babette Marten,
seventy-years old at the time.
Bob Laabs also got himself a fun job after he “retired.” A former high-school principal, Laabs
took a job as a historic interpreter in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia, a popular tourist center. Now he
gives tours of the buildings in Williamsburg and lectures tourists on the events of 1774-1776. “It’s not so much a
job, but a fun thing to do,” stated Laabs, sixty at the time. “I like history, I like people, and this is a melding
of both of these things.”
Although the extra money Laabs makes allows him to live in more financial comfort than if he
weren’t working, this isn’t his main point of working in retirement. “You’ve got to retire to something, not from
something,” Laabs advises people about to retire. “Don’t just get away — do something that enhances your
lifestyle.”
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot
work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at
the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
— Kahlil Gibran
All things considered, if you are going to work in retirement, the nature of the work should be
much more important than the money you can make at it. Should it be the case that you need a reasonable income from
your retirement career, careful thought and preparation will be needed to find part-time work that is both
enjoyable and profitable. On the other hand, if you have a good retirement income without a job, even one that pays
the minimum wage should be taken in the event that it provides you with satisfaction and enjoyment.
While pursuing a fun retirement job, we should do the right thing for ourselves, regardless of
what others may think of the job. It’s okay to take a job that has less status than the one we had in our primary
careers. A good example of a person who did just this is Dick Remy, a can-company supervisor before he retired at
the age of fifty. For the first five years Remy worked part-time as a consultant. Regardless of the fact that being
a consultant gave him a measure of status, Remy didn’t find his retirement job much fun. Eventually he did
something about it. “I decided to see what was out there,” stated Remy.
As it turned out, Remy’s fun retirement job ended up being a truck driver, a job some retirees
may have dreamed of doing as a kid, but never got around to pursuing due to the job’s perceived lower status in
society. This didn’t stop Remy. He was first trained as a truck driver by Kreilkamp Trucking Inc. of Allenton,
Wisconsin, before the company hired him. Now he spends up to forty hours a week behind the wheel of an
eighteen-wheeler that he has nicknamed “Sweet Pea.” Remy declares, “This is a great job for me because it keeps me
moving - I’m happiest when I’m on the go.”
Particularly if you have a nice retirement nest egg, you, too, can easily make the transition
from “I have to work” to “I want to work for the fun of it.” Getting the right one of many available jobs for
retirees will allow you to work at something you like, at your own time, at your own pace. The beauty is that you
don’t have to get a retirement job for the whole year and you can work as much, or as little, as you want. You can
experiment with various short-term (a week or a month) or part-time jobs for retirees (one or two days a week).
You never stop earning when you do what
you love.
— Asha Tyson
Following are several other fun retirement jobs and retiree businesses that will appeal to
certain individuals and that you may want to consider for your retirement years:
- Spend a year in Mexico working alongside Franciscan nuns in a home for elderly women.
- Teach English in a Costa Rican village.
- Work on a golf course and learn more about the game from the experts.
- Work as a travel agent to learn more about other countries and get some deals on travel.
- Engage your musical abilities by joining a band that plays on a cruise ship.
Get work as an extra with a studio doing a film or a TV documentary in your area.
- Use your carpentry skills to remodel old farm houses in the south of France
- Take off for the winter on a two-month-long trip to Las Vegas and work as a blackjack dealer in a
casino.
- Get a summer job driving a tourist bus in Banff in the Canadian Rockies.
- Offer your public-speaking abilities to conventions in major cities in exchange for travel expenses, food,
and lodging.
- Book a working vacation and help native Maoris in the Cook Islands improve their healthcare system.
Particularly if your career work was all labor and drudgery, a fun retirement job may bring you
a measure of enjoyment and satisfaction that you didn’t think was possible. Indeed, getting a fun job after you
retire from your primary career gives you the best of both worlds. Having enjoyable work while also having more
leisure time is a great way to enjoy life. You can have a freer lifestyle because of the increased leisure time,
and still enjoy the many positives of having a job.
Best of all, retirement is your opportunity to try out many retirement jobs just for the
adventure of it. If you find a job that really turns you on, you may want to stick with it for the longer term. The
most fascinating aspect of a job in retirement or a retiree is that it may actually end up being your true calling
in life. As inspirational author Louise Hay said, “New careers can start at any age, especially when you do it for
the fun of it."
25 Best American Cities for Jobs in Retirement
Recently MSN.com reported on the best cities in the U.S. in which to find a retirememt job.
A list was generated using factors such as the rate of general employment growth, the
unemployment rate in the area, the presence of employers willing to hire older workers, cost of housing, general
cost of living, and the availability of health-care services.
Here are the top-25 cities in the U.S. for finding a great retirement job:
-
Ann Arbor, Michigan
-
Bethesda, Maryland
-
Columbus, Ohio
-
Fayetteville, Arkansa
-
Greeley, Colorado
-
Harrisburg/Lancaster, Pennsylvania
-
Indianapolis, Indiana
-
Knoxville, Tennesse
-
Kansas City, Missouri
-
Las Vegas, Nevada
-
Leesburg/Winchester, Virginia
-
Louisville, Kentucky
-
Madison, Wisconsin
-
Medford, Oregon
-
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn
-
Nashua/Manchester, New Hampshire
-
Phoenix, Arizona
-
Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina
-
Sacramento, California
-
San Antonio, Texas
-
Sarasota, Florida
-
Seattle, Washington
-
Spokane, Washington
-
Tampa/St. Petersburg,
-
Washington, D.C.
An Unusual Retirement Job or Retirement Business for Retirees During the
Recession
According to a recent Associated Press news report about how the recession is affecting the retirement plans of today's retirees,
some have found the ideal creative retirement job for their second career that many retired people are searching
for: The ideal retirement job is becoming a landlord.
Because the value of stocks are uncertain and many houses are not selling, some retired and soon-to-be retired
are keeping their money in rental property. The are looking for a steady second income that compliments their
primary pension.
"Real estate can be a wonderful asset to have in retirement, because when you have tenants, you have money
coming in every month and, if you don't have pensions, that's important," says Barbara Pietrowski, a Certified
Financial Planner in Roanoke, Va.
Of course, the key to any aspect or real estate — including being a successful landlord as your cool retirement
job — is still location, location, location.
If your goal is to receive a stable income, you have to make sure the economics for the area are right. Choosing
a location where there is a strong demand for housing will do the trick. Thus, some retirees look for rental houses
in college towns — where they find a large pool of well-qualified potential tenants, Phipps
says.
What's more, a college town is one of the best places to retire. College towns usually
have an abundance of retirees or college students. These individuals will always require places to live and will
probably look for middle-of-the-road rents, which should be the rents of the type of properties that you
own.
Retirement Job and Retirement Business Resources
Retirement Jobs and Retirement Businesses at The
Real Success Resource Center: For Retirees who want to retire to a job they love instead of
one they love to hate! Top-10 Retirement Jobs. Top-15 Cool Retirement Jobs. Also retirement business
ideas.
The World's Best
Retirement Book
by Ernie Zelinski

Over 400,000 Copies Sold
Published in 10 Languages
How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
Will Ensure That You Are Prepared for Retirement When You Leave the Workplace for Good
Whether You Need to Work at a Retirement Job or Not!
Purchase the New
Edition of How to
Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Today Through These Direct
Links:
Retirement Job Ideas — Articles Coming Soon!
(Adapted from
the Book 1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement)
- Find Out What You Want to Be When You Grow Up If You Want a Job for Retirement
- Add More Meaning to Your Life and Become More Whole and Complete
- Stay Involved in Something Dear to Your Heart
- Semi-Retirement Allows You to Become the Corporate Genius
- Give Up Your Past Life for Something Completely Different
- Redesign Your Old Job Into Your New Retirement Job
- Start a Retirement Business — Run a Limousine
Service and Meet Goldie Hawn
- Become a Published Author in Your Nineties
- Become a Retired Plumbing Guru
- Turn Your Treats into a Retirement Business, Even If You Are in Your Golden Years
- Retire to Be Faithful to the Pursuit of Your Mission and Improve Your Health at the Same Time
- First, Retire Happily — Then, as Your Retirement Job, Teach a Course on How to Retire Happily
- Zen There Was the Monk on the Mountain Top Who Retired to Go Back to Work at His Retirement Job
- Write Yourself Out of Poverty
- Become a Busker as Your Retirement Job and Do a Host of Other Things That You Couldn't Do in the
Typical Workplace
COPYRIGHT © 2020 by Ernie J.
Zelinski
Author
of The World's Best Retirment Book
All Rights Including Foreign Rights
Reserved
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