If you're nearing retirement or already cashed your last paycheck, you may find you need a little extra money each month to get by. Maybe, after a long career, you simply want to do something you really enjoy, but with the added benefit of earning some extra pocket change.
Perhaps you want to give back by working a job you didn’t have time to take on as your career took off. On the other hand, you may not play golf, pickleball or bridge and you're bored. According to one study, 50% of retirees have considered “unretiring” because they want the intellectual stimulation they get from working, while 36% feel a lack of purpose in retirement. Others may need the cash. An AARP 2024 study discovered that 18% of respondents ages 50 and over had no retirement savings. In fact, most retirees lack the minimum savings to retire in all 50 states.
In 2024, more than one in four Americans (28%) have savings below $1,000. This is the case for 32% of Gen Zers, followed by Millennials at 31%, Gen X at 27% and Baby Boomers at 20%, according to Forbes Advisor. If you’re considering returning to work in retirement —whether for kicks or because you’re strapped for cash — consider the following opportunities.
1. Become an adjunct professor
If you were a professional during your career, colleges and universities are always looking for adjunct professors or lecturers. Some require a master’s degree, while others require a college degree and/or professional experience.
A side hustle as an adjunct professor can add several thousand dollars to your annual household income. Plus, it's richly fulfilling to work with students eager to learn. How do you get an adjunct teaching job? Reach out to community colleges, four-year colleges and universities where you live. It's best to contact the department head in the particular department that interests you and inquire about becoming an adjunct. You can also contact the admissions department for any job postings in your area of specialty.
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2. Teach at a public school
After working all of your life, you might want to finally follow your lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. How about substitute teaching ? There is a teacher shortage, and many schools need teachers. Grade schools and high schools nationwide are looking for people to substitute teach. In 2024, nearly nine in ten schools struggle to hire qualified educators.
Some districts hire directly, while some districts outsource the hiring process. ESS, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based K-12 educational staffing firm, works with more than 900 school systems to fill substitute teacher and other staffing positions with its base of more than 100,000 substitute and permanent employees.
The company also says it fills many non-teaching roles that don’t require certification. These non-teaching positions vary by state and school district, but some don’t require substitutes to have a teaching certification either. Pennsylvania, for example, allows people with a bachelor’s degree to apply for a one-year emergency certification to substitute teach. Check the websites of the school districts in your area to see if they are hiring substitutes. You can also contact the admissions department or school office.
Pay varies by district. For example, the Fairfax County Public School system pays substitute teachers around $21 to $31 per hour, and the county pays teachers of homebound students $50 per hour. Find state-by-state guide requirements and, in some cases, pay and benefits for substitute teachers, courtesy of the National Education Association.
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3. Become a patient advocate
Many retirees sandwiched between kids they've raised and parents they care for understand how tough it can be to find the right care for mom and dad, now in their late 80s or early 90s. For this reason, some of us get good at advocating for the most appropriate and best health care for our parents. Good news for retirees — you can turn that into the next chapter of your “career” by becoming a patient advocate.
Patient advocates do exactly what the title says: They advocate for the medical needs of their clients. Those who have turned the skills they honed helping their parents (or themselves) into a second career can turn those same skills into a second career. Some positions pay anywhere from $40,189 to $53,512 per year, and involve working with 10 to 20 clients, according to Salary.com.
Patient Advocators and the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates are two such startups. If patient advocacy seems like a good retirement job for you, check out Health Advocate Resources.
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4. Become a tour guide
If you like to travel, live near a historic site, have always loved history and want to explore a new job, you could use your retirement free time to earn a little extra cash by becoming a tour guide.
The National Park Service offers opportunities to become a licensed guide with the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. For example, the Licensed Battlefield Guides of Gettysburg hires individuals to take visitors around the national park for a fee. Rates for a two-hour basic battlefield tour range from $70 to $152 depending on group size in 2024 (with prorated fees of $35 to $76 per hour for additional time, based on group size). Tips are not required but are often given.
Prerequisites for becoming a professional tour guide vary widely, from no requirements to passing a test administered by your local jurisdiction to getting a license (or both).
To find out the specifics in your area, go to the National Federation of Tourist Guide Associations and click on "Our Members." Then, reach out to whatever association is closest to where you live. The associations will guide you on local licensing information and offer training programs, continuing education, job-networking opportunities and certification. Expect to make about $40 an hour, the association says.
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5. Work at a national park
Retirement can be a perfect time to achieve your dream of working at a national park. Who wouldn't want to work at one of the most beautiful places on the planet?
These side hustles at national parks, summer camps, ski resorts and guest lodges are usually seasonal, but some also offer year-round work. Cool Works is a good resource to check out. It posts listings from employers in locales around the U.S. You’re not going to become a forest ranger, but will more likely see job listings for reservation clerks, gift shop employees or cooks, as well as land and water shuttle drivers. For jobs aimed specifically at retirees, head to the Older and Bolder section on the Cool Works site. You can also search for jobs at national parks by browsing listings on USAJobs.
Most of these employers would like you for the full season, but the shoulder season, when students have to return to college, almost always has openings. Pay hovers around minimum wage, though that could be higher in 2025 with so many job openings. Some even offer lodging in dorms or homes, or if you own an RV, you may get a free hookup, including water and electricity.
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6. Become a youth sports official
C’mon, ump! No, really, come on, ump. Become an umpire, soccer referee or some other youth sports official and get in on the fun. Of course, you must be physically fit, love coaching and kids, and follow all the requirements of being a referee.
Contact your local high school athletic office or municipal recreation department for guidance and possible job listings. They’ll point you toward the regional governing association of the sport you're interested in refereeing. You may even get to be mentored by a seasoned umpire or referee. Some positions require a nominal fee, up to $50, for a combo of exercises, lectures, rulebooks, etc. There may be some other requirements, like getting Red Cross training.
This is a job where you’re also in it for the fun, but the pay is there, too, as you work your way up from youth leagues to high school varsity games. Pay can range anywhere from $0 to $35 for youth games and up to $65 per game for high school varsity games.
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7. Become a tutor
If you have a special skill — whether it’s the ability to play an instrument, paint like Picasso or explain calculus in a way anyone can understand — you may be able to make money sharing it with others. For example, you could earn $10 to $75 per hour tutoring individual kids or college students. This is also one of those positions offering a flexible schedule that may include evenings or weekends.
Advertise your services on school, campus and community bulletin boards, or tutoring websites such as Wyzant (where you choose your own hourly rate) and Tutor.com. You might also consider taking advantage of social media sites, such as Facebook, to promote your tutoring skills and knowledge.
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8. Become an usher
If you love sports, the theater, music or any other live events — and are comfortable moving through crowds — ushering for pay and perks may be the way to go.
According to Salary.com, full-time ushers can earn anywhere from $18,794 to $27,947 a year, with an average annual pay of $22,550. You'll get to see amazing performances — and get paid for it. Naturally, movie theaters, performing arts venues and sports stadiums are the biggest employers of ushers. Best way to find a job like this? Simply Google "usher jobs." Indeed, Glassdoor and other job sites all list open opportunities.
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9. Become a babysitter
If you like kids, babysitting can be a fun way to put some extra money in your pocket. You can advertise your availability via online services and hourly rates vary by city (and the demands of the job). In New York, expect to earn $977 for working a 40-hour week on average as a babysitter or nanny, possibly even more, depending on a variety of factors.
Advertise your child care services on community bulletin boards, in the public library or at houses of worship. You can also place a listing or search for jobs on sites such as Care.com and Sittercity. The national average hourly rate for a babysitter in 2024 was $24.99 for one child and $28.10 for two kids, according to UrbanSitter.
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10. Walk or pet-sit dogs (and other animals)
Why not get a little exercise while you earn an average of $17 for about an hour’s worth of work? Working folks will pay plenty for you to take their puppies or other animals on a daily stroll while they (the owners, not the pets) are at the office.
Or consider pet-sitting for people while they’re on vacation for a daily fee of $50 or more. Advertise your services in veterinarians’ offices, on Craigslist, Facebook or on sites such as Care.com. UrbanSitter says the average national rate for a pet sitter is just over $26 per hour, more if you live in an urban center.
You can also team up with an existing dog-walking operation that handles client recruitment and scheduling. To find one, ask other dog walkers whether they're part of a group or check out Craigslist and Facebook.
Marking similar territory is Rover.com, a website for those of you looking to be pet caregivers (and, as well, a site for pet owners to find you). Rover offers dog boarding services, pet- and/or house-sitting services, doggy day care and even drop-in services where caregivers stop by your home for quick potty services (for the dog) and a mini-play date.
Rover.com has some stringent guidelines for the people it hires (only taking on less than 20% of potential sitters, the company says). The Seattle-based firm has services in more than 34,000 communities in North America. Rover.com says the sitters it backs via its website can earn up to $1,000 a month (sitters set their own rates; Rover.com takes a 20% bite per booking).
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11. Become a freelancer
Plenty of media, corporate and nonprofit websites are looking for freelancers to write, edit or design content. Freelancewriting.com and Freelance Writing Jobs provide a long list of freelance writing opportunities culled from several top sites, along with advice and tips for freelance writers. Freelancer.com offers a wide variety of freelancing jobs in categories such as design and media, as well as writing and content. Krop is a useful site for developers and designers, but it also posts jobs for copywriters and copy editors.
If you fancy yourself a skilled photographer, you can also earn extra cash by selling photos to stock art sites such as Getty Images/iStock and Shutterstock. At both sites, you must apply to be a contributor by submitting samples of your photos, illustrations, videos or audio. If approved, you’ll earn royalties when your files are downloaded by paying clients.
Getty Images royalty rates are 20% for still images and 25% for video clips. iStock royalty rates start at 15% for photos and 20% for videos and illustrations, and Shutterstock’s royalty payouts are between 15% and 40%. You can also browse job listings on Linkedin and Indeed to find freelance jobs in your desired field. Researchers, project managers, assistants, AI professionals, consultants and off-site managers are only a few of the great jobs waiting for you. Plus, many are off-site, so you can work wherever you want.
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12. Sell your creations
If you have a knack for creating anything from baked goods to intricate art designs, you can profit from your talent.
It happened to Stacy Brown, founder of the Auburn, Ala.-based Chicken Salad Chick restaurant chain. Brown’s personal quest to create the perfect chicken salad morphed into a small side business where she was selling her yummy food from her house — until the health department informed her she couldn’t sell food from her home kitchen. Voila. A restaurant was born from whence a chain sprung up. For more about Brown’s story, see Small-Business Success Story: Chicken Salad Chick.
Maybe your lifelong dream isn't owning a restaurant, but you’re an excellent baker (according to all of your friends). You can find clients for your baked goods by volunteering to provide treats for your children’s school functions or for church or other religious gatherings, or by selling them at a farmer’s market, flea market or local festivals.
If art and design are more your speed, consider selling your creations online or at local craft shows. Online sites include Etsy, DeviantArt or Zazzle— just to name a few. Etsy and Zazzle feature products such as jewelry, quote posters, vintage clothing, stickers, greeting cards, t-shirts and even pet supplies. DeviantArt mainly sells art prints.
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13. Become a blogger or YouTuber
If you like to write, or think it would be fun to share your knowledge about a particular subject, consider starting a blog. WordPress.org and Blogger.com offer free blogging platforms. Want to go bigger? Try GoDaddy.com for domain name registration, as well as website building, hosting and security. Turn to Google for Publishers for a free way to display ads on your site that earn money.
If you have a camera and something unique to share, you can cash in on YouTube. A reasonable goal for amateur filmmakers is to score viral fame with a YouTube channel. That means making a series of videos highlighting a specific skill or theme — say, cooking, standup comedy, plumbing or repairing older cars. Your videos will drive traffic to one another while you perfect your skills and earn subscribers. To generate views, reach out to media outlets and bloggers with a link to your videos. You've got the skills and knowledge, now is the time to put them to work.
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14. Become a driver
If you’ve ever found yourself in need of a quick ride, you may have turned to Uber, the anytime, anywhere ride-sharing service that has gained enormous popularity. But have you ever considered becoming an Uber driver?
Requirements for becoming an Uber driver in most cities include being legally able to drive and having at least one year of driving experience (three if you’re under 23). You must also own a car and pass background and driving checks. If you meet the requirements, you could earn cash by driving people around in your free time.
Uber boasts that drivers’ average hourly earnings can be as high as $50, but some observers have estimated it’s far less than that. And don’t forget to factor in the costs of using your own car, such as gas, maintenance, car insurance, and cleaning. Also, your earnings depend upon how much you work and how many rides you give, among other factors.
Uber’s biggest ride-share competitor is Lyft. Like Uber, Lyft has age, vehicle and background-check requirements for drivers. If you don’t want to buy into those platforms, check local car dealerships or taxi services. Some cities and towns also hire retirees to drive city buses.
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15. Perform odd jobs and small tasks
Surf over to Fiverr, an online community of freelancers of all stripes. There, you can advertise your proficiency in skills including writing and translation, video and animation, voice-over and advertising. As Fiverr’s name indicates, your services sell starting at $5 a pop, and you have the option of adding ancillary services to make more money, up to $1,000 per month. Fiverr keeps 20% of customer payments, meaning you earn $4 from every $5 in services you sell. An alternative to Fiverr is Upwork, another freelance marketplace.
For more intensive jobs, try joining TaskRabbit, which is owned by Ikea. If you live in or near one of 83 regions in the U.S. )or seven additional countries in North America and Europe) served by the site in 2024, you can perform tasks such as waiting in line for someone, running errands, building shelves, assembling Ikea furniture or lifting heavy items. You set your own fees with TaskRabbit, and you keep 100% of what you charge plus tips (for example, a "tasker" in Albany, N.Y., was making $28 per hour for help with moving). The company says it has an intensive vetting process. An alternative to TaskRabbit is Thumbtack, which also has a network of freelancers that can perform various tasks in all 50 states.
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16. Become a school bus driver
If you’re retired and have some early morning and late afternoon time on your hands, you could make some cash driving a school bus. You may even have the opportunity to make a little more money if you sign on to drive school sports teams to and from events in the evening or on weekends. For most school districts, you must have a commercial driver’s license, a clean driving record and no criminal record. Bonus: You like to drive and you’re friendly.
But it’s not big money. Most drivers are paid between $15 and $23 per hour, according to Salary.com. You should plan to work 20 hours or so a week, often starting in the early morning before getting back behind the wheel in mid-afternoon for a couple of hours. You’ll have an established route, and depending on where you live, you could be working for the school district or a private bus company hired by the school district.
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17. Become a shopper
How about going grocery shopping and making money instead of spending money? You can do it as an Instacart shopper. You know the drill, because you likely have run into armies of Instacart shoppers while shopping for your own groceries: Instacart employees are shopping for, and delivering to, folks shopping from home or work.
You have two options when you wear the Instacart green: Just do the shopping as an in-store shopper and have someone else deliver. Or, do the shopping and the delivering as a full-service shopper. As a full-service shopper, you’re an independent contractor who must have access to a car. You choose your own hours and will shop and deliver orders. Instacart does not post salary levels, but ZipRecruiter says the average hourly wage in the United States for an Instacart shopper is $18.00.
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18. Become a restaurant host
If you’ve been out and about at restaurants lately, you'll know that they love seasoned personnel, and retirees fit that bill.
If you’re not one to keep food orders straight or carry heavy trays of hot food, consider becoming a restaurant host instead. Here, you’ll take reservations, meet and greet diners, and more. The average pay is $15 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. However, some restaurants offer higher pay, a portion of tips and bonuses to lure you in. Perks also include free food in some restaurants. And if you’re in resort areas, jobs may be even more plentiful. So might be the perks. And, if you've always dreamt of traveling the world on a big boat, become a host or hostess aboard a cruise ship. Check out Cruise Discover to find out how.
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19. Become a bartender
Are you a skilled mixologist at your home bar? Why not take it to the streets? Make that a restaurant, juke joint, casino, fancy hotel bar … you name it.
There's plenty of need for bartenders. I don’t have to tell you what a bartender does, but the more skills you bring to the table, the better, and those skills include being social, quick on the draw and having a deft touch.
Salary.com notes that bartenders make, on average, $24,000 in the U.S. but can make well over $30,000. Payscale lists wages a bit lower, starting at $10.18 per hour. The perks: Hey, good bartenders are tipped well.
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20. Become a fitness trainer
You’ve always been a gym rat, and you have every intention of taking that into retirement. Why not consider taking your fondness for exercise into a second-act career as a fitness instructor?
You’ll want to spend a little to get more. If you want a sanctioned job at a fitness facility, get your certification. That could come from the American Council on Exercise or the American College of Sports Medicine.
The American Council on Exercise is the larger of the two. For your purposes, ACE oversees a self-study program to take the proctored exam with 150 questions done virtually or in person. As a fitness instructor, you can make between $52,000 and $96,000 per year, according to ACE. You must be certified to perform CPR and to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) to sit for the exam.
Besides, you’ll be entering a growing field. The American College of Sports Medicine projects a 13% growth in fitness trainer positions through 2028. According to the ACSM, the median salary is about $40,000 a year, but as more businesses add health fitness programs, fitness instructors could make much more. One thing to remember is that this can be a strenuous job, so you must be in the best shape possible to become an instructor.
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More resources for interesting jobs
Looking to go deeper in your job hunt in retirement? Check out Retirementjobs.com, which lists jobs in retail, caregiving, tax preparation, driving and more at age-friendly employers. ReadySetHire lists positions for retirees. Just input a job title and location and find positions that let you explore your wildest dreams. The AARP is also a good source of flexible positions for retirees, with many work-from-home opportunities. There you have it - now get to work!
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