Last year, I asked the women in our community how they make money in retirement. Their answers were amazing and showed just how creative our generation has become when it comes to supplementing our income in the best years of our lives.
So, today, I’d like to share 60 creative ways that we have found to make money in retirement. I hope that you find them useful.
If you’re out of work and looking for employment in your 50s, read 10 Ways to Move Forward to help get you organized to find your next job. Also, Tips for Finding a Job After 60 has several pieces of advice to get you back making money from your passions.
Did you know that networking is very important when it comes to job searching? Read this article to find out how you can market yourself and your skills in the modern world.
Do you have a knack for business? Thinking of starting your own venture? You’re certainly never too old to go that route.
Ok, now, here are the original 60 ideas…
Rent Your Space
Earn cash hosting people from around the world when you rent out your extra space on Airbnb. It’s a great example of the shared economy in action and currently has hosts in 192 countries. You can rent a room or your entire home by the night, week, or month. Cash in on that next event your city hosts!
Consider Rent a Grandma
Here’s a way to share two of your best attributes: your love and your wisdom. You can upload a profile on the Rent a Grandma website and start accepting jobs from families for childcare, eldercare, tutoring, being a personal assistant, and more.
You negotiate job responsibilities and payment directly with the families. You can even start a franchise in your area – anywhere in the world. We checked. The world is waiting for you!
Try International House Sitting
Imagine spending a few weeks in a luxury condo in Singapore, a secluded beach house on the island of Roatan, or a restored castle in the French countryside. A growing number of people are getting paid to travel through house sitting websites.
Find out the best ways to get paid to stay rent-free in exotic locations you’ve always wanted to see.
Sell Your Photos
You may already have a big headstart on this moneymaker. If you have digital photos sitting around on your computer, why not see if you can sell some of them? There are plenty of stock photo sites where you can submit photos. Get snapping!
Get Paid for Copywriting
You don’t need to be a novelist to write copy. Turn your words into cash at a variety of websites like LinkedIn, Copify, ProBlogger, or Indeed.
You can also use Upwork to look for editing, copywriting, and other creative jobs.
Sell Handmade Products Online
Join the microbusiness movement with your own store on Etsy. We love Etsy because it empowers creative people who want to be solo entrepreneurs and gives them a platform to work from.
Get inspired to create a side hustle or even be able to quit your day job. Don’t let the competition scare you away, there’s room for every idea!
Sell Custom Products Online
If your friends marvel at your witty one-liners, you can turn your sass into cash at Café Press or Zazzle. Open a store, upload images, art, graphics, or text, choose which products to feature, and get paid. If you put some thought into this and develop a niche, you’ll set yourself apart.
Not creative? They both offer affiliate-marketing programs where you promote others’ products and earn a cut.
Try Freelance Tutoring
International students in need of mentoring in specific subjects are meeting with freelance tutors through virtual sessions. You need to be knowledgeable in the subject you want to tutor, but don’t necessarily need a degree in it – though they appreciate that too.
Choose the jobs that you think are a good fit for you and get paid to help others. Simple!
Consider Blogging
Can you really make money from blogging? Yes! In fact, some people make staggering amounts of money, and for even more, it’s their sole income.
You don’t typically make money overnight; it involves a lot of consistent dedication. However, if you choose a subject that you love talking about, can it really be called work? Read more about the benefits of blogging here.
Look into Mystery Shopping!
Calling all shoppers – here is your dream side-project. There are companies that will pay for you to “shop” their clients’ businesses to give them honest feedback.
The business owner uses the service as an undercover quality check of various aspects of customer service. Legitimate mystery shopping companies are worldwide. Most, but not all, belong to the Mystery Shopper Providers Association.
Sell Items on eBay
eBay isn’t just for cleaning out the garage, basement, or attic… although you can certainly use it for that. Experts agree that you should try the service out as a buyer before you start trying to sell, so you understand a little about how it works.
Once you get started, you may find that it’s just the place to market your products or services. You can even open your own eBay shop.
Try Pet Sitting
If you’d like to transform your love of pets into a viable business, Pet Sitters International offers a free ebook titled, 5 Must-Do Steps to Starting A Successful Pet-Sitting Business, which provides a good starting point to research your options. Not only would you be good for the pets, but they’d be good for you too!
Sell Your Skills Online
Fiverr is a funny, high-energy website where you may make some quick cash with the right idea. Would you pay $5 to have someone promote your business in a leprechaun suit, sing happy birthday from a tropical beach, make a video rant, or overreact?
From real value to sheer craziness, people are making money selling their skills online. What skill could you sell for $5?
Rent Your Gadgets
Instead of letting that food processor, electric drill, or extra iPhone sit around collecting dust, put them to work. You can send your gadgets and gizmos out into the world to make money for you through websites like Ruckify, RentNotBuy, or FatLlama.
You can even make money by connecting people who need something with people who have it.
Become a Local Guide
Take your unique perceptions, combine them with your knowledge of your community, and earn money as a local guide.
Make your tour thematic like distinctive coffee shops in the area, showcase the neighborhood with a “best of” tour, or dig deep to find the hidden gems no one would know to look for but you. Whatever you do, have fun with it!
Advertise your tours in your local paper or join Local Facebook pages about the area you want to be a guide in.
Rent Your Parking Space
Maybe you have a two-car garage with only one car, a side driveway, or an empty parking pad. Turn dead space into ongoing income through sites like Parking Panda (select US cities).
You list your parking space for free with the site and they take care of the rest. When your space rents, they keep a small percentage of your rental fee and send you the rest. Search for this innovative idea in your country.
Look for National Parks Gigs
You can help people gain an appreciation for the environment with this outdoors opportunity. National parks provide visitors with guides and other helpers during their stays.
You can check out nearby opportunities on sites like Older and Bolder (US) or similar prospects in your country. Teach the next generation to honor the earth, while you commune with nature.
Try Contract Consulting
If you’ve spent your career in the corporate sector, here is a chance to share your expertise and leadership with social-purpose organizations that are changing the world.
Encore Fellowships matches your skill set with the organization that can most use your guidance. They actually refer to their fellows as “second acts for the greater good.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that!
Contracts are usually six months to a year. Humanity is waiting for you.
Rent Your Car
Did you know you can make money from renting out your assets? Websites like Getaround and RelayRides make it easy.
Why pay to park your car at the airport the next time you jet off somewhere? Instead, Getaround will rent out your car, clean it, and take care of it. They have a one million dollar insurance policy too. RelayRides lets you do peer-to-peer car sharing by the hour or by the day.
Get Paid for Online Surveys
Cash Crate is a great paid surveys site. Trying new free products and services, taking consumer research surveys, and referring others can pay you. You can also earn money back on your own online purchases and win prizes for socializing and playing games. (What?!)
But that’s not why we love it. We love it because of the community and transparency. Cash Crate has an active forum where their two million members exchange tips and ideas.
Write Songs Online
Classical musicians take note. (Pun intended.) If you’re a classically trained musician who’s relegated your talents to entertaining a small circle of friends, it’s time you breathe new life into your work. Create something magical and license it online.
Try Task and Errand Services
TaskRabbit is a website that brings together people who need to outsource everyday errands or skilled tasks with people who have the time and talents to get them done. Once you become a TaskRabbit, you bid on tasks that are a good fit for you.
TaskRabbit is available in most major U.S. cities as well as Canada and several European countries. If you can’t find such a service in your country or area, TaskRabbit can be a wealth of information for you to start your own tasking service.
Become a Yoga Instructor
Think you’re too old to become a yoga instructor? Think again! Some of the best yoga instructors I met in Bali were in their 60s. As with anything else in life, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So, why not start your own yoga journey today. Who knows where it may lead you?
Consider Vacation Dog Boarding
Dog Vacay is a cool site that brings doggie parents together with dog lovers who’ll watch their furry babies while they’re on vacation. If you’re a dog lover, this is the perfect way to earn money and enjoy the companionship dogs offer too.
The company is U.S. based, but the first time you click on Become a Host, it will open a box inviting you to expand into your country. (We tried it.) Be the first Dog Vacay host in your community!
Try On-Demand Ride-Sharing
New websites that promote collaborative consumption are popping up all across the web. Lyft is one website that connects car owners with people who need rides.
By using your smartphone and your car, you can earn money by giving rides to people in your area. When a request for a ride comes in, you can choose to accept it or not.
Look for Expat Jobs
Here’s an adventurous notion; work overseas as an expat. If you really want to shake up your life, do a Google search for “jobs for expats” and prepare to be amazed.
There are job opportunities across the globe. Tutor French or lead an English playgroup in Hong Kong, or be a student support manager in the Netherlands. Pick a country and check out their opportunities.
Try Your Hand at Entrepreneurship
Do you have a really great idea that you haven’t acted on because you don’t know how to fund it? You come up with a project idea and decide how much it will cost you to make it come to life. Post it on Kickstarter and let people who love your idea contribute to it.
Once your project is funded, people can continue to contribute until your fundraising period ends. (Some projects get funded over 2000% above the goal.) Make your dream idea a reality on Kickstarter.
Be a Movie Extra
Let your star quality shine by signing on as a movie extra. Extra work pays little for an eight to twelve-hour day with a lot of downtime, but you’ll be on the big screen! Movies shoot at locations across the globe.
You can find opportunities near you by watching entertainment news, checking websites like Craigslist for casting calls, or registering for free with a casting agency. Who knows? It could be your calling (pun intended).
Get into Freelance Teaching
Don’t just babysit; make a difference. Choose one or more skills that would be valuable to children, like learning philanthropy, environmental stewardship, money management, yoga, art, computers, or lifetime fitness. The list is endless, really.
Offer after school paid classes. Kids learn valuable life skills, parents know their kids are someplace safe and enriching, and you earn money. Check out Learning to Give for ideas.
Grow Mushrooms
Growing mushrooms, especially gourmet mushrooms, can be a profitable side-hustle or a full-time income. There are blogs, websites, and forums where you can learn from and interact with other mushroom growers.
Mushrooms don’t have many requirements and make a perfect urban farming project. Put your green thumb to work and grow mushrooms for profit.
Check Out the Senior Job Bank
Just because we’re over 60 doesn’t mean we aren’t dynamic and enthusiastic contributors to the world. Connect with employers who understand that and are actively looking for seasoned employees through Senior Job Bank. It’s nice to feel appreciated for the talent and wisdom you’ve accumulated over a lifetime.
Teach at a Senior Center
Do you have a special talent in the arts – music, visual art, performance art, or writing? Offer paid classes at senior centers. Fees are typically nominal – under $50 per person. Participants meet a couple of times a week for several weeks.
We aren’t talking cutting out snowflakes or making clay ashtrays. We’re talking real artistic engagement. Think about what’s possible and decide how you can share your talents with others.
Join a Corporate Board
If you are at the end of a successful corporate career, getting a position on a corporate board may be the next step for you.
Boards are heavily populated with retirees – most were CEOs or upper management during their careers. 50/50 Women on Boards is an organization dedicated to helping successful women gain board positions.
Organize Relocation Tours
With economic uncertainty in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, retirees are packing up and searching for more affordable locations. If you happen to live in one of the top destinations for expats, you could provide a valuable service introducing them to your country.
For a great example of how you can start your own relocation tours, check out how retiree Jackie Lange has been doing it for several years in Panama.
Teach English as a Second Language
Teach English as a Second Language online. You meet with students one-on-one from your home computer via their website.
Opportunities exist to teach at every level. What better way to meet people from another culture without leaving home?
Be a Mentor for Teens
Lead a summer trip for teens with Bold Earth. Although it’s headquartered in the U.S., Bold Earth guides lead teens in projects from the Swiss Alps to the Amazon Basin. Trips are community service-based to provide fun, adventure, and opportunities for giving and developing leadership.
Raise Alpacas
Do you long for the rural life? Raising alpacas has become surprisingly common. They are easy to raise, fun to be around, and turn a good profit.
A Google search will turn up many websites dedicated to your success as a novice in the business. You can also partner with alpaca farmers if you have the skills to turn all that luscious fur into something beautiful and wearable.
Try Online Translating
Bilingual women, here’s an opportunity to put to use or develop your translating skills. You can do online translating for Gengo. You work when you want, and you choose the jobs that are suited to you.
Payments are made directly to your PayPal account. Bring the world closer together one translation at a time!
Be a Virtual Administrative Assistant
Trade in the cubicle for the bunny slippers. If you’ve been an administrative assistant in a brick and mortar company, you’re already skilled at this. Now, you can transfer those skills to your comfy home office and work the jobs you want, when you want. Check out WAHM.com for the best places to get jobs.
Try Graphic Design
If you have a graphic design background, Creative Overflow has 10 ideas for making extra money. As a bonus, they give you three websites you can go to for each of the 10 ideas; that’s 30 opportunities to turn your creativity into cash. Start one of these great side-hustles, and let your creativity overflow!
Make Money in Retirement Cooking, Baking or Catering
Do you make that special something that friends and family beg you to bring to gatherings? Now that you don’t have to cook, maybe you want to!
There are so many ways to go with this from the practical to the fanciful. For all things practical, get some food for thought from Wikihow. Let’s get cooking!
Become a DJ
Think over 60 is too late to be a DJ? Ruth Flowers, AKA Mamy Rock, begs to differ. Even if you prefer wedding receptions to sold-out rock concerts, you have to admit that this is an awesome way to share your love of music.
Get started at How To Be A DJ. (Note: Why not rent your equipment from sites like SnapGoods?) Now, get your groove on!
Try Garden Consulting
Your garden receives the accolades of the neighborhood. While you love your garden and love to talk about it, you don’t necessarily want to grow someone else’s garden for them.
What you can do is teach them how to do it (casually or formally) and guide them through garden consulting. Specialize in organic gardening and grow your clientele exponentially.
Get Paid for Becoming a Better Person
Daily Feats is a website that pays you to be a better person. You accumulate points by setting small goals for yourself and reaching them. You can take steps to improve yourself or to help others.
When you’ve accumulated enough points, you’re rewarded with gift cards and coupons. It won’t pay the bills, but if you need a little motivation to make changes in your life, this is where the rewards are.
Become a Craigslist Reseller
Do you pride yourself on always being able to find a good deal? Shopping and bargaining for deals on Craigslist, then reselling them a few hours later at a profit can be a great side-hustle.
Find a niche of products that you know a lot about and buy/sell your way up to the big ticket items of your category. Note: Safety first; always meet buyers and sellers in public places.
Become a Personal Shopper
As a personal shopper, you could specialize in the type of shopping you want to do. You can market your skills as an image consultant if you have an eye for color and style. Going this way commands the big bucks.
You could also take the path of shopping for people who can’t do their own shopping. The rewards here are more for the spirit than the pocketbook.
Get into Furniture Refurbishing
Is everything you see filled with potential and possibility? Channel your optimism into furniture refurbishing and bring a little more beauty into the world.
Initially, you can do some small pieces for yourself – pick up things that need some love from garage sales. Once you’ve refurbished a few pieces and taken pictures of them, you can hire yourself out to others.
Have Fun Prospecting
How fun is this? Grab your pick, shovel, and cowgirl hat and take an adventure vacation to pan for gold or dig for diamonds.
In either case, whatever you find is your own. Pay for your vacation and then some! With a little research, you can find the hot spots around the world. Even if you don’t turn out to be one of the lucky ones, you would’ve had an experience you’ll never forget. But, what if…?
Become an Event Planner
Everybody loves a party. If you’re the extrovert who always goes the extra mile for the dinner party, birthday celebration, or World Cup Final get-together, then share the love through party planning.
Find a niche that you’re particularly good at and that you love and start letting people know you’re available. You can keep it casual for some extra money on the side or scale it up to a business if you change your mind.
Self-Publish Your Own Book
Have you had an idea for a book burning in the back of your mind for years? Maybe now is the time to let it out! Don’t know where to get started? Read our quick guide to writing a book here.
Try Life Coaching
You’ve accumulated a lifetime of experience and wisdom. Why not share it with others? People are seeking coaches to help them in their work, with their relationships, and for their personal development.
Decide where you shine, and start coaching in that area. There is no rule saying you have to be certified to be a life coach. However, if that’s something you want, there are abundant opportunities on the Internet.
Join a Virtual Call Center
Great phone skills and a passion for people combine to bring in a little extra cash through LiveOps. Once you become an agent with the LiveOps virtual call center, you are an independent contractor. Consequently, you can work it as a side-hustle a few hours a week or scale it up into your own dynamic business.
Start Developing Mobile Apps
Do you have a great idea for a mobile game or a mobile application that offers a solution? Mobile Apps offer plenty of ways to make money.
If you have the skills, you can develop it yourself. If not, hire a developer.
Consider Substitute Teaching
In many schools, you don’t need a license to be a substitute teacher. This could be a rewarding way to make extra cash. If the idea sounds intriguing, learn more about it. Typically, subs are needed for one to several days and usually on a last-minute basis. You accept the jobs you feel are a good fit for you.
Become a Pet Photographer
People treat their pets like children and love to spoil them. If you’re particularly good at getting animals to cooperate with you and you’re into photography, combine the two to become a pet photographer.
If you do your shots outdoors, you don’t have to worry about fancy lighting. Just capturing that precious, furry face will be enough!
Help People with Résumé Writing
It’s surprising how many professionals, young and old, can’t put together a modern résumé. You can offer this valuable service and command good money for it.
Since every résumé should be tailored to the specific job being applied for, and each will require a new cover letter, you have built-in repeat business… unless you’re too good!
Make Money as a Freelance Writer
If you have a flair for writing, there are several websites where you can offer your writing skills for a fee. Check out Upwork, or Guru to get started. You create a profile, specify the type of writing you offer, and start winning jobs. The sites are competitive, but if you follow their suggestions, you’ll soon set yourself apart.
Become a Genealogist
Were you the family member who researched and pieced together the family history for everyone else?
Put your research skills to work for other families by offering family history services. It can be a great way to earn extra money and can also be fascinating work. Find out what it takes to get started. Happy searching!
Get Paid for Digital Scrapbooking
With the trend toward minimalism, the hardest things for people to let go of are items of sentimental value. Nowhere is this more obvious than photos.
You can help people organize and downsize by digitizing their photos and scrapbooks and moving them into online storage.
Become a YouTube Star
Did you know that some YouTube stars make thousands of dollars a month? There are already quite a few younger video bloggers out there, but there is a gap in the market for older men and women.
Just look at Sixty and Me. We already have over 160,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. If you like the idea of being on camera, check out YouTube’s official guide.
Here is an example of one of my own videos…
Try Home Staging
If you have a knack for making a house a home, then home staging could be a great income avenue for you. Home staging is the process of cleaning, updating, and decorating a house to make it market-ready. Learn to make money with home staging, and then grab the paintbrushes!
There you have it! 60 creative ways to make money in retirement. I hope that you found these ideas useful. More importantly, I hope that you use this list as a starting point for finding your own way to make a little extra cash. Even if none of the specific ideas here are your cup of tea, they may give you a spark of inspiration. Good luck!
If you have already reached retirement age, what are you doing to make a little extra money? Or, if you are still working, what do you plan on doing to make money once you reach retirement age? Please join the conversation.
