Already doing it; shipping center for Da Jungle. I get a good cardio workout five days a week, 3-5 hours a day, and they hand me a check (direct deposit actually) every week. And any day I decide to quit I can. What more could you want?
Every Amazon shipment I get (at least one a week) I think about you guys.
I can think of tons of jobs I’d like to do but don’t pay enough.
Tutor, Ski resort whatever (anything, so I can be a ski bum), handyman, game store employee, movie theater employee.
Also already doing it. I am a behind the wheel driving instructor. I get $40 per 90 minute lesson and teach two or three lessons on an average day. Almost all my students are already skilled drivers and are taking instruction to get the insurance break or to learn how to parallel park. So, I mostly get paid to take pleasant rides in the country and chat with people. It pays weekly, which is nice.
In engineering, I’ve met a few old guys who retired, but kept a part-time consulting gig that paid almost as much as they were making before retirement, while working a lot fewer hours. Probably more than $300 a week though.
Personally, I’ve always wanted to be a short order cook at a diner like Waffle House. Although, now that I think about it, there are a lot of jobs I’d like to do if money was no option. Just knowing I can say “fuck you, I’m out” if the boss behaves like a dick has a way of making any work seem more like an interesting pastime than actual work.
If you had asked me three or four years ago I could have told you in a heartbeat: a couple of days a week as the man who repairs/replaces the (rural) public footpath and bridleway signs in the county of Sussex. What’s not to like?
But I’m not unretiring to do it. Now, at my leisure, I get to visit the signs on foot or off-road bike.
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I’d work with a few private clients as a college counselor. It’s not hard work, but pays well if you have the sort of specialized knowledge you need to be good at it.
Thanks to the changes named as The Forever GI Bill I plan to be a student for the first two years of my retirement.
That’s the time under the revised GI bill I don’t have another plan/use for. That includes the E5 with dependents Basic Allowance for Housing during the school year which is effectively pay since I’d be paying to live otherwise. It’s an untaxable allowance and not counted as income, though. Otherwise it would be way over the threshold. Something like 2-3 majors at the local community college would keep me full time since I’d already have all the elective stuff from previous degrees.
I certainly hope the grandkids are of age.
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Well, I’ve set things up so I won’t have to work at all, even to maintain my own cigar and tequila habit. But if I had too, I’d probably do consulting on the side. Most likely in the cyber security field, but possibly more broadly in the network infrastructure field.
Dream job…well, I would love to have a pizza place (wood fired stone oven). Pizza and wings, made my way. Conversely, I’ve kicked around the idea of putting together the stuff to make my own forge and give knife making and such a try. I always wanted to do more low tech stuff, though in the later case I’m unsure if I’ll be physically fit enough by the time I retire to do that sort of thing…depends on how I am at 65 (just a few years away now). Either way, I wouldn’t be necessarily looking to make money, more have stuff to do. Other thoughts wrt my own possibilities are…go back to school for another degree, but this time in something I’m actually interested in and that would be fun. Archaeology or anthropology would be things I might pursue. My wife wants to volunteer at the local animal rescue, and I could see doing that (if I had more money I’d start one myself).
Tutoring can pay you quite well, if you have experience, do it well, and take it seriously as a profession. Living in an area with high demand helps, too.
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Repairing small engines.
Primarily generators, lawn mowers, lawn tractors, and weed eaters.
I’d set my own part time schedule.
I’d also earn money from mowers & generators left on the curb. Most of them just need the carb cleaned & a oil change and they’ll run. Test them and sell on Craigslist. Generators should be kept and sold in winter after an ice storm. That’s when they’re in demand.
My dad did this for twenty years after retiring from the military. He also taught small engine repair (night class) at the Vo Tech school for 12 years.
I’ve always planned to open my own small engine shop after retirement. It’s relaxing work and something I’d enjoy.
I looked into doing this. The rules are incredibly complicated for the compensation, and it seems that the only restaurant around here that does that is Sonic, which IMNSHO does not serve food, only edible food-like products.
I did online market surveys, both for mainstream products and for a company that helped pick drug names, but both companies stopped sending me usable surveys, so I took myself off their e-mailing lists. I did pretty well with both of them for a while, however.
I think a good fit for me would be working at Lowes, Home Depot or some other big hardware store. I know all of that shit. I’ve done more kitchen/bathroom remodeling projects than I care to admit. Re-roofed 4 houses. Worked as a carpenter and exterior trim guy when I was younger.
Helped our family build a 240 lot mobile home park when I was a kid. I also designed and built a two story addition to my house. That included moving the mechanical and laundry room (lots of plumbing). Built a loft/office in our bedroom.
I’d have to go to the tool shed to count how many power tools I have.
Have rented tracked excavators, back hoes and even a CAT D3 dozer to work on my driveway (gah, I plowed last night, but will need to get on my Kubota today to clean it up). Built a retaining wall of 100 6x6x8 timbers (that’s not something I want to do again, but it’s still doing it’s job 20 years later)
Owned and operated a lawn sprinkler company.
Jack of all trades but master of none, it’s true. But I know that shit and I like helping people. Yes, I’m bragging a bit. But I’ve been there. I’ve screwed up only to have to fix it many a time. “When you don’t get what you want, you get experience”. I’ve got a lot of experience. 
Sadly, I would probably be given the task of sorting lumber bins, or cleaning bathrooms.
No please go do that! At mine. While I have run in to a few employees who are obviously tradesmen, for the most part it’s just old guys who need something to fart around with and think they’re qualified because they kind of built a deck once.
Had you thought about a handyman service? You could just take the jobs you want and set your own hours.
Well, I’ve been scoring standardized test essays online for over ten years, so I’d continue doing that. It’s helped me take a nicer vacation most years.
I’d also consider tutoring for standardized test preparation or perhaps the Series 7, I received a score in the upper 90s on the Series 7.
board game design and selling my stuff.
Substitute teach.
They make about $125 a day around here so maybe do that a couple of days a week.
Thanks. And, no. I’ve got enough of my own projects to work on. Helping out and advice would be fine. And… I am 5-10 years from retirement.
It’s a weird thing. I’m a computer programmer (GIS). But I have a ton of experience in building/remodeling. Perhaps I should start a TV show like the other half dozen of them out there.
I worked at Home Depot briefly after I moved back here, as a temporary employee in the lawn and garden department. Most of the people who worked there were like me - people with lives in transition who were using this as a bridge to their next station in life.
Truthfully, had I been so inclined, I could have just punched in, gone off somewhere, and then come back at the end of my shift and punched out, and nobody would ever have known. 
In the end, I made $914 and it really wasn’t worth it. I haven’t set foot in the place since I went back to turn in my apron and empty my locker.