For many people retirement is a time to wind down, to take stock, and to enjoy some well earned years of rest. It is a time to watch the grandkids grow, to take up gardening (or kung fu!), to get around to all the jobs that need doing around the house, to relax. But switching off after a life of work is not as easy as just lying in on the first Monday morning of retirement. Most people who reach retirement age are still in rude health and will have decades of quality years ahead of them. For many people, these years can be an ideal time for entrepreneurial seeds to start budding. Our busy work lives often leave little time for our hobbies let alone our business ideas.
So what are some great ways to live as an entrepreneur after retirement?
Design A Product To Market In Your Field Of Expertise
As the old adage goes: “You can’t buy experience.” On average, a newly retired person has forty four years of experience in employment and during that time will have acquired vast knowledge and skills in a range of fields. Retirement provides a time to reflect on areas of strength and expertise and to think about different ways to take advantage of them. Many design entrepreneurs identified a problem at work and were able to develop an innovative solution to the problem. Think about the profession you have just left and consider what problems made your job more difficult. There may be a money making solution!
Use Your Experience To Make Smart Investments Or Launch A New Business
Likewise, experience within a particular field gives you an advantage in investment or start-up potential. Pensions can provide good start-up equity for a new small business and contacts within the field in which you were working may prove invaluable in sealing early income revenues. Similarly, good knowledge of a sector will help you to make shrewd decisions on the stock market and here again using a portion of your pension which you can afford to speculate with can be a fantastic way to make money.
Invest In A Property
Especially at a time when deposits are so high, more and more retired people are investing in property. With many mortgage providers demanding 20% deposit, for first time buyers in particular, getting a foot on the housing ladder can be extremely difficult. Because of this, the rental market for young professionals and families is a fantastic way to make money. Do your research on mortgage rates for second homes and into which areas young commuters are gravitating, and the right property could provide a great monthly income during your retirement years.
Go Back To The Things You Love In Your Younger Days
How many of us ended up in the careers of our dreams and how many of us had to put those dreams aside due to growing families and mortgage repayments. Retirement is a perfect time to pick up old passions and dedicate the time needed to try and build profitable businesses around them. Some of the most famous names in the industry, as detailed in this blog post, were older entrepreneurs who went back to the things they were passionate about. If you enjoy carpentry in your spare time, open a handmade furniture store. If you love growing vegetables in your greenhouse, sell your produce in the local farmer’s market.
Learn A New Skill
Retirement is a great time to learn a new skill or start a new hobby. Many retired people are learning new languages or developing their computer skills and this can lead to income potential in entirely new fields of business. There are so many ways to make money online these days that with just a little research and practice, there is a potential goldmine for anyone who has the time and enthusiasm to tap into it. Marketing, freelance writing and editing are huge markets which you may already have the skills for. There are vast resources available for free online to teach yourself new skills and making new contacts can be as simple as sending an email.
With ever increasing life expectancy, retirement genuinely can be some of the best years of our lives. For many people, however, who have worked their whole lives and don’t know how they will fill their time, retirement can be a cause of great anxiety. By following the advice above, that anxious energy can be transmuted into the invaluable vim of entrepreneurial enthusiasm, and a whole new career and life could be just around the corner.