Retire Early Home Page Discussion Board

[Biker]

I am sure this has been discussed, but it seems to me that there is a broad range of states between being retired and working for the man. One state which I find very interesting is the financially independant, but still doing something to bring in some extra cash outside of the investments. The point being that I could live fine without the job, but with the job I could take a few more vacations and maybe compensate for rising health care costs. It would be work, but not required work. The kind of work that could deliver more freedom and also bump up the income when coupled with investments. Its also a place where if the market is doing bad and you have to cut back on withdraws, maybe you can work a little harder or more to compensate. I don't know what to call this area, but it seems that it is a far cry from working because you have no other choice.

It is not retirement for sure, but it is something very desirable compared to doing a 9-5 gig (or 7 - 9). It is also different than some other perspectives in that it is never required. Its not about working a bunch, then checking out till you run out of money, then working some more to build up a stash, then checking out again. Niether is it about finding a low stress job that will delay retirement because there no need to build a nest egg anymore (it is already built).

What I want is a job (activity) that will bring in about 10-15K a year that is not demanding, easy to turn on and off, has lots of opportunities for extended breaks, and could be meaningful. Which seems like a possibility given that every body says that if you want good money you have to give all that up. I would be curious to see if anybody has some ideas or experience following this path?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Again, I am not calling this retirement, but something different. Maybe FIPE (Financial Independance, Part-time Employment)?

--Biker

p.s. I am not maniacal enough to self publish a book on the topic of FIRE, so that suggestion would probably not be a good one.

p.p.s. I also realize that a more viable and lucrative option is running google ad-sense on a web page highlighting such lunacy when it becomes rampant.

[sgeeeee]

Hi biker,

I was surfing the web a few days ago and ran across a recent retirement survey that merrill lynch sponsored. They claim that large numbers of baby boomers want to define retirement just as you have. I haven't gotten a copy of the survey yet and their web site is full of a lot of sales verbage. :-/ In order to tap into these people (and their money), merrill lynch even built a retirement calculator that allows you to describe three phases: full-time work, transition phase, and full retirement.

Merrill Lynch New Retirement Illustrator:
http://askmerrill.ml.com/html/mlrr_illustrate_flash/

I'm not recommending the calculator, but I thought you might be interested in what they are saying.

I have chosen to do something similar to what you describe. I retired in March 2003. I was sick of industry and ready to pursue a number of other interests. I stayed completely out of engineering for about 6 months. Once I got away from the office nonsense, I began to remember why had originally gotten into engineering. I really was good at it and enjoyed the technical part of it. I now work about 1/4 time for a small start-up company. My wife and I travel about 1 or 2 weeks a month. We do a lot of camping and work on a number of archaeology projects around the country. These trips take first priority on my schedule. When we are not traveling, I go into the office up to 3 days a week for up to 6 hours a day. I enjoy the work and they feel like my contributions are significant to them. They pay me enough that it covers about 2/3 of our annual expenses. I don't know how long I'll continue to do this. I guess till it gets in the way. But for now, I'm enjoying it.
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-=sgeeeee=-

[hocus]

They claim that large numbers of baby boomers want to define retirement just as you have.

Here's a link to a page at my web site that discusses a recent Outlook section article in the Washington Post making a similar point, SG:

http://www.utternonsense.com/retirement-purpose.html

Rob

[Biker]

[sgeeeee]

[Biker]

Thanks SG! Great list.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I am looking for. It is obvious when you see it, but it definately gets the gear spinning on thinking of other things.

I can think of a few things to add to the list off the top of my head:

Become a tour leader (hiking, cycling, fishing, climbing, etc)
Work at a museum or gallery
Usher at the perfomance center
Home inspector
Fix computer problems in the neighborhood
Web page designer
Teach a class at the informal learning center
Seasonal work at a national park

I am going to have start saving all of this as I am sure more ideas will come to mind.

Thanks for the list and the links!

--Biker

[Big_D]

I would recommend tutoring. A good tutor can earn $20+ per hour. Tutors are in high demand. Tutoring also does not have to be about academics. If you have hardware skills, you can offer to teach other people one-on-one and probably charge a bit more. If you are a biker, you could tutor new bike owners on how to service and manage their bikes. Lots of possibilities.

Another recommendation is writing. The good thing about writing is the residual you can build over time. How-to books and such are great. If you do a book, don't publish a printed version unless you have a publisher. Instead use an online company like payloadz.com or something to handle distribution of a PDF version. Ebay has amended their downloadable auctions policy so that you can now sell there as well as long as you are the copyright holder.

Both of these suggestions require some self-promotion, but in my experience offer the best rewards. Get paid for sharing your knowledge - its your most profitable commodity...

[Big_D]

Tutoring for toddlers grows in popularity:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051112/ap_on_re_us/tutoring_tots

[montyauto]

Bring in about 10-15K is enough for Not retired, but not a slave.
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