10 Money-Making Jobs For Retirees

  |   22 October, 2014   |   810   |   3980

For more and more of us, retirement doesn’t mean the end of work. Seven in ten people 50-plus want to keep working after they retire, according to a recent Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study. Among those who have actually retired, almost half reported that they’d either worked or plan to work during their retirement. Money isn’t the only reason, although it’s a good one: People are living longer, company pensions have pretty much gone away and economic downturns mean we may need to add that third income stream – paid employment – to the other two: Social Security and retirement savings.



But money, it turns out, isn’t the main reason retirees want to work: They do it because they love the intellectual stimulation, the sense of purpose, and the opportunities retiree jobs offer for making and keeping social connections and staying physically active. With the backup of Social Security and savings, seniors are often freer to choose work that matters to them, even if it doesn’t pay top dollar, and that offers the flexibility to create the life they want.



For each person, the equation will be different. When financial security tops fulfillment, pay will be a bigger issue, of course. For others, staying active – socially, mentally, physically – will be the priority. Some retirees are happy to trade the stress and responsibility of their career jobs for something more fun and fulfilling, even if they don’t earn anywhere near as much. Here, then, is a sampling of the range of jobs for retirees.