You retire and start receiving social security benefits early. You want to keep semi-busy and pay for your liquor and cigarettes. You can earn around $300 a week without it affecting your SS.
What is your $300-a-week (or less) job?
I expect working in a used bookstore will be a popular response. It is mine as well. I might also like working in an independent movie theater.
Other thoughts?
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My job is pretty easy. If I’m still here in 20-some years doing the same job, I’ll probably just work less hours doing what I already do.
Well, I don’t smoke and $300 would purchase enough alcohol for me for at least a year, so I don’t need to make much. 
Anyway, I dream about having a home studio where I can make pottery to sell online or at local art fairs. Most of the money that I make would probably go to support my pottery habit. My parents did craft shows for many years after they retired. It kept them busy and (mostly) out of trouble.
No idea but it would have minimal contact with the general public. Maybe working at a historical society or something.
I actually am doing that as a sideline - selling used craft books that I buy at estate sales.
The year I tried to do it as a full time gig, I made about $3000, so well below the cutoff point.
Mrs. ToKnow occasionally suggests that we should go into consulting for what we do now (library work).
She likes the idea of being paid to travel places and tell people what to do without actually being accountable for whether or not they do it.
I’d take up my dad’s retirement trade and become a locksmith and all-round residential Mr Fixit. I’ve got a good idea of the limits of my skill so if you’re asking something beyond my skill set, I’ll let you know and suggest you hire a professional. I work cheap and but you better be flexible on scheduling.
This is right up my alley, since I’m semi-retired and subject to the SSA limitation on earnings for another six months.
I teach. Because I have several professional certifications and licenses (and been in the business for over 35 years), I work as a contractor to teach two and four-day certification/licensing classes around the country. It works out great. I know at least two months in advance what I’m going to be doing, I get to pick and choose where I want to go and how often, and I don’t have to do a damn thing the rest of the time. The company I work for does all the curriculum development, marketing, registration, and financial work. I go and teach and then they send me a check.
I have an Amazon resale account, and mostly sell books, in addition to vintage magazines and sheet music, sewing patterns, and some ephemera. I recently upgraded to a professional account, only profitable if you sell more than 40 items per month, and immediately regretted not doing it sooner. I upgraded it just after midnight on February 1st, and by the time February 2nd rolled around, 38 items had sold! :eek: Unfortunately, I lose money on some of the cheaper purchases (less than $6) because I don’t usually get a postage allowance, but it doesn’t bother me because I’m sending a lot of dormant merchandise out the door.
I’m not yet earning enough to depend on it for a living, but I enjoy it.
I plan on going into marijuana farming or selling when I retire. Good benefits, good people, good weed… what’s not to like? I have friends who work at a dispensary and they mostly love their jobs so I figure “hey; why not?”
I can retire in 10 years at 54, and at that point it’ll be 12 years before my wife is eligible to draw her retirement. So I’ll have to find something to do until then, or until our youngest graduates high school and we just bail to Mexico or Belize.
Either way, my plan at the moment is to parlay my current job in to doing compliance consulting for federally regulated motor carriers.
My dream job that will probably never happen is to have a rescue dog to use to find bodies in natural disasters or domestic terror events.
Truck, dog, travel… Along with helping folks in need. What’s not to like?
I’d outfit a van as a mobile bicycle repair shop. I can handle most any repair (I’ve built up bikes from bare frames), though I expect to mostly to just do basic adjustments, patch tires, replace cables, and such. I would make house calls and work events on weekends. I’m sure that as a business it wouldn’t make any money, but if I were doing it as a way to keep busy after retirement then I’d be happy if it covered expenses.
I have no idea how much it pays, but I would enjoy being a judge for the Food Network shows, especially Iron Chef America.
More seriously, I’d continue to do what I currently do (nursing home doctor), just on a much reduced schedule, 2-3 hours a day about twice a week.
Bridgetender. Did this in high school and after—sat in a small shack for an 8 hour shift, read books, wrote, played guitar, opened the bridge 2-3 times in a busy shift. Heaven!
Failing that, teaching political economy and history to trade unionists and social activists
Voice over work.
I’m the complete opposite on the first. I’d love to work the counter at a hot dog joint or something and talk to strangers all day. Teaching or maybe electronics lab assistant at a community college might be neat, too.
However, I also love history so your second sentence sounds ok, too. During my last visit to the Field Museum, an elderly docent approached me while I was looking at some artifacts and we had a pleasant chat about bronze. That sort of retirement would be so cool.
This. I have about 7 years of experience dealing with the public and hated it. I can be polite but some people are just cruel idiots.
I wonder if there is a job which involves me reading/researching a subject and just writing reports every month. I would like something like that where I could work anywhere … and no strangers asking where the bathroom is for the 1000th time.
I currently teach fulltime at a community college, so I could go the adjunct route for one or two classes at a time. I’m close to retirement now, and although the bureaucracy is tiresome, I still enjoy dealing with students and being in the classroom.
I’d have a 5 acre apple orchard and make apple brandy from my fruit in the fall. I’d get to do light manual labor all year to keep me moving and make fantastic booze which is fun. I’d only make 200 cases a year so that should work out to a max of $7 in profit per bottle and with prices that low selling won’t be hard.