I’m in exactly the situation described by the OP. In my case, I drive small buses for a non-profit center for developmentally disabled adults. I’m not sure I’d call it an ideal job, but I get along with pretty much everybody, I enjoy driving and the route is mostly freeway, so it’ll do for now.
For me, run a homebrewing beer shop. I’m not an award-winning brewer, but I’ve been making beer for over 20 years, so I can make a drinkable product. I get to teach people who want to learn, and I get to learn from those who know more than I do.
Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about insurance or housing…
Working in a steam engine and boiler room of an old working plant.
I would go back to delivering airplanes. I did this for butter-and-egg money when the kids were in high school. It’s mainly a sort of paid vacation to move the plane from A to B, but really doesn’t pay much.
Once I had a lot of vacation time and spent a long lazy week wandering over the US, and I would like to do it that way again, without hurrying to finish and get back to the office on Monday.
This. I’ve done some growing as well as consulting for growers, but I’ve never been in a legal state.
Just as wine has sommeliers, beer has cicerones, I’d like to either grow high end strains or else advise people on what to use and how best to use it. Cannabis Connoisseur, BudTender, whatever.
Helping to keep the books at an interesting non-profit, like the Center for Election Science. Or being a budtender once Maryland decides to join the 21st century and legalize retail sales.
I’ve thought about this. Perhaps going around to hotels in tourist areas that have bikes for guest use. The ones I have been to, there is always a bike or two out of commission with a flat tire, and hotel staff likely don’t have the skill or time to work on bicycles. I thought a monthly fee to keep all the bikes in their stable working and tuned would be attractive. One less thing to handle. Multiplying a number of hotels until you are as busy as you like.
My job would be the guy at REI that builds and tunes bicycles and skis and snowboards. Year round work, indoors, using my hands, dealing with things I love, and meeting people with similar interests and passions. Pay would not matter, but the benefits situation might be dicey.
Am I allowed to work less time than that for a similar amount? I could do it by staying in my line of work but taking those little contracts nobody wants, such as “trainer; one week contract”.
Their are some places on the Katy Trail in Missouri where you could do some good business.
On the same track, I had an idea of starting a non-profit where I would set up a shop at an area on the Katy and have volunteers fix peoples bikes who come along or even better, have a service where if someone breaks down a few miles down the track we could send someone to help them.
After a career in public safety, I tell people my dream retirement is a cave with wifi. Since that doesn’t pay, I keep thinking about a job where I don’t have to think too much or interact with crabby people, just tell me what to do and let me go on auto pilot.
I had an old boss that always said he wanted to “pick up sticks in a park”. He actually went to a municipal park department and they created a job for him. He would come in early before the grass cutters and pick up sticks and debris so the cutters wouldn’t have to get off the mowers. After he retired again, they actually sought out other retiree’s to do the same thing he was doing. As he said, it wasn’t a lot of money, but he could afford a beer or an icecream for the grandkids without worrying about the budget.
I opened my online pet supply store in 2016 for exactly this purpose: to build it up so that it can bring me at least a part time wage when I retire (hopefully early) from corporate life. It’s still not profitable enough to bring me a wage, but the numbers are going in the right direction. More importantly, after three years I’m still enjoying the heck out of it. I love all the things that most people hate: accounting and charting the numbers every which way possible, boxing up orders to send out, customer service. I really love being my own boss!
I was considering a part time job at one of the big box home improvement stores. The employee discount would be nice. But I have spent almost 40 years working in a big building walking on concrete floors all day, I don’t think my feet and knees could take much more of that.
My plan now is building child sized picnic tables and selling them at farmer’s markets. I built 20 last spring and sold out in just a few hours. I stayed and sold 23 more. It was tough to fill those orders due to lots of mandatory overtime at my job so I am going to wait till I retire next year to build more. I have drawn up plans for a slightly larger version for older children and another with a separate benches and table. I also built some out of cedar to use as plant stands and sold them on Craigslist. I sold all 6 in less then a day.
Elementary school reading tutor.
This is what my passion has always been, but I’ve never been able to afford it.
Probably usher at a major/minor league ballpark. I don’t think we’ll stay in the DC area after we retire, so it would probably be the latter.
My job is easy enough that I could continue doing this forever. But if that wasn’t an option:
Something with animals - shelter, wildlife rehab, zoo, vet, pet store, walking dogs
Bookstore or library - sorting, shelving
Museum
Antique store
Retail - stocking and tidying shelves/counters
Full retirement doesn’t really appeal to me. I won’t ever have enough money to travel all the time. So just sitting around at home is something I could only do for a short time. I need something to do and somewhere to go.
I wouldn’t mind being a campground host…in a campground out in the boonies somewhere that nobody knows about.
‘Mystery Shopper’ who goes around to bars and restaurants and eats and drinks and gets paid to do it.
‘Ski Host’ who goes skiing and takes surveys of tourists while riding the chair. Hand out free lip balm. (Yes, this is a real thing!)
‘Ditch Rider’. Get on yer Bad Motorscooter and Ride! Make sure the fences and ditches are in good order. Get paid.
With a little care to scheduling, I could pull off all three simultaneous.
Actor
Extra work, commercials, audition for speaking roles - but not stress about getting the roles. All of that would be for pay. But along with that, unpaid theatre and student films.
IME, it’s not worth it. A former girlfriend was a mystery shopper for a while and the opportunities aren’t great. Plus “gets paid to do it”==“gets reimbursed for your expenses,” which IMHO is not the same thing.
I just checked back in to mention that I’m a bit surprised at some of the answers. I know the OP asked about staying “semi-busy,” but he also mentioned staying within SSA limitations on earned income. Most of the suggestions seem to be full-time…or more. I opted to work the least amount of time making the most money (within SSA rules) so I would have the maximum amount of time for family, personal activities, and hobbies.