Here's part 6 of a series from US News and World Report that gives seven reasons you shouldn't retire. Today's reason:
You can use this time of your life for a whole new beginning.
Their summary of this issue:
You see it everywhere you look. There's the corporate vice president who becomes a high school basketball coach or the director of marketing who joins the Peace Corps. Today's new retirees are often healthy, energetic, and increasingly viewing retirement not as a withdrawal from the workforce but as a time to set out on a new beginning.
This is what I hope to do -- take something I love to do and turn it into a part-time job in retirement. I think it will be similar to this example they share:
Don Davidson, 78, turned a hobby into his second career. Davidson, a former executive with Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Day, retired to launch a custom woodworking business, Don Q. Davidson & Sons Fine Woodworking, out of his home in Wilton, Conn. "I wanted to see if I could commercialize what had been this lifelong hobby," Davidson says. Davidson's sons, 32 and 34, both work full time for the word-of-mouth business, constructing and installing cabinets and restoring and refinishing furniture. Davidson is just starting work on an ornate maple fireplace mantel and beginning drawings of a mahogany computer center that he will antique. While his furniture often appears older than it is, Davidson himself shows few signs of wear and tear. His 20-year second career has kept him active and engaged. He particularly enjoys creating something he is proud of and presenting it to a client. "I've found this to be a wonderful way," Davidson says, "to go from a busy corporate life into a busy private endeavor."
Wouldn't this be fun? Not sure which (if any) of my hobbies (writing, cycling, growing roses) could turn into a money-maker (actually, the first has already, but not a HUGE money maker), but it would be nice to be able to work at any one of these and earn a decent level of income.
What about you -- do you have a hobby or interest that you'd like to "down-size" into at retirement?
This is actually what I'd like to do also, when I've gotten enough money to 'retire early' - work on interesting stuff, that also might make some money. I'm currently working as a programmer and sometimes I really think this is quite mind-numbing, I mean the problems I have to solve. Interesting thing is that my hobby is also programming (one of them). So when I don't have to work for money I'd like to take on some real hard and very interesting programming projects (operating systems, games, artificial intelligence etc). Field is so wide and I'd like to contribute opensource projects. Second thing might be photography - to photograph what I like, not what people want (doing formal portraits is the most boring thing I can imagine). Third thing is woodworking and maybe combining this with computers - wooden case-modding.
Posted by: Viljo | June 21, 2006 at 02:43 AM