I have had a few working opportunities since my first early retirement. I can tell you that a Fun Retirement Job Starts With Your Motivation. Work and Fun together in the same sentence seems to be the ultimate oxymoron. But the reality is that working for the right reasons in retirement can be fun. I love the definition of retirement as the absence of NEEDING to work. Basically we are still retired if we choose to work for reasons other than our financial survival. Being forced back to work for a paycheck just to make it is unfortunately another flavor of the rat race.
More and more people plan on working in retirement. There are many reasons why retirees choose to work. Motivators include:
- Working in a Field of Interest and Passion
- Being Social
- Brain Stimulation
- Staying Active
- Learning New Things
- etc.
For some retirees the motivation to work in retirement is for a financial boost or extra play-money. For a fun retirement job money can’t stand alone and shouldn’t be the only motivator.
No matter what our reason is for starting a new retirement gig, having a fun retirement job starts with our motivation. Then using our motivation to pick the right job that checks off all of our motivation boxes.
My Fun Retirement Job Experiences
I had always planned on retiring early and often. Since my first early retirement as an engineer from a long telecom career I have had some amazing retirement jobs. I call these fun retirement jobs my passion driven opportunities.
Wireless Telecommunications NOC Tech
A stepped down responsibility position from my land-line engineer career where I was able to learn everything I could about wireless networks.
Cable Video on Demand Systems Analyst
This was my encore career. It was a nice transition into IT away from my earlier life in network operations. I was able to use a lot of my passion focused skills to learn and work in the video world.
Cable Telecommunications Billing Systems Analyst
This was a 7 month early retirement side hustle. It started as the most perfect and fun consulting gig I have ever done. I was able to use the skills that I like doing from my first and second career together.
Craft Beer Bartender
This was a part-time gig of passion. I love a good beer and the craft beer movement. It’s a totally new working experience and it gave a huge boost to my social circle.
Not a bad run of opportunities since first retiring in December 2009. These passion driven opportunities were all fun retirement jobs for me. It was my motivation that made them that way. Many of my coworkers in these gigs were not having fun. That is because they HAD to work there. They were motivated by career driven money reasons and their financial survival.
What was their rat race existence was my learning, social outlet, rewarding (financially and otherwise), passion driven and fun experience.
Having the Right Motivation: The Key to a Fun Retirement Job
We have all been there. Having a job to pay the bills and enduring the crappy commute. We lived for payday and the weekends. If we were lucky we had some fun doing what we did for money.
Working in retirement has the same challenges. There is still usually a commute and a work schedule which obligates our time to be committed to the employer.
The difference that makes a fun retirement job is we only work in retirement because we want to. The key is tying anything we do to our passions and interests. Otherwise we trade one rat race lifestyle for another.
Work is work but if we choose our retirement job correctly, the Fun comes when everything is aligned perfectly.
My motivation has always been to try and learn new things. I also focused on skills I enjoyed using and steered clear of skills that I had and didn’t enjoy doing. My passion driven opportunities were for reasons other than money. That is what made them fun. Money was just the frosting on the cake. I targeted areas of high interest and passions. How could I not enjoy doing them? It also doesn’t hurt knowing that leaving a job is always an option.
Sometimes it doesn’t Work Out or Last
We will never know until we know. As we grow and move forward some of our passions and interest can change. That is when a passion driven retirement opportunity can stop being fun. The money side of the brain can take over and convince us to stick it out. But that isn’t what working a fun retirement job is about.
When the fun ends then that is when it’s time to move on. Life is short. That is the “retire often” part I love. When I hear that little voice that I have all I wanted from the opportunity and it loses its fun-factor it is time for me to go.
Sometimes the opportunity is still something I have interest in or passion for but other elements have made it lose its luster and fun.
- Difficult Coworkers and/or Managers
- Difficult Clients
- Change in Work Scope
- Commuting Changes
- Health and Wellness Issues
There can be a number of reasons that can make what was a fun retirement job turn into dreaded unsatisfying work. Once our motivation is no longer being met then it becomes another obligation slog. Just like any pre-retirement job. It is then time to move on to the next fun retirement adventure.
In Closing
I just ended a short 3 month run as a Craft Beer Bartender. It was a blast and totally outside of anything I have done before. The people were great, the PUB was awesome, it was close to home and I learned a lot.
However my old back injury was aggravated by all the standing on hard surfaces and the constant bending over for low stored items / low dish sink. I have had to limit a lot of things I used to do because of my back issue. So I had to resign and return to loyal customer status.
I only worked part-time a couple of shifts a week. It was still a scheduled obligation and if it wasn’t fun it would feel like an unwanted obligation. Looking forward to going in for a shift was exactly what a fun retirement job is about.
On my last shift which was this past Saturday I felt more sadness about leaving coworkers and the business than I did in my first 2 early retirements. It was hard to quit something I was enjoying doing and being a part of. Sometimes things just don’t work out but we gain great things in the experience.
Who knows what or when the next passion driven opportunity will come along. Early retirement is an adventure. My primary motivator is to strive to keep it fun and rewarding.
Are you open to considering working a fun retirement job?