One of two things might happen upon your retirement regarding your personal finances. One is that you could discover your weekly or monthly income to be below the amount that you had hoped, and the other is that you will have enough money but will nevertheless wish to streamline your expenses to make the most of your budget. In either scenario, learning how to live within your retirement means is a skill that may take many months to develop and put into meaningful action – overspending at the start of being free from work commitments is a common issue faced by many recently retired people.
Of course, you may be entitled to more help from a range of benefits than you may imagine. For example, why not look into how to boost your VA disability rating if you’re a veteran. But if you really want to look at ways to increase your income through spending your spare time on money making pursuits, you may need a few ideas in your locker. Let’s look at how you could turn your idle afternoons and wide open weekends into solid cash, because you never know when you might need some extra money to help pay for things like broken down cars and family celebrations like weddings and graduations.
First step: Learning how to look at your money
Money isn’t just money. There are different types of money. There’s money for fun things and there’s money for serious things. Dividing money into different piles can help to make sure you look at money in the right way.
Expenses could include:
- Home bills
- Food expenses
- Car or public transport costs
- Insurance, credit cards, loans
- Recreation (which could include vacations)
Once you have a good idea of how your money is being divided and how your time is being spent, you will have a better idea of how much money you need to make and how much time you have available.
Choosing the perfect money-earner
How to make money out of thin air is a subject we all think we know a lot about until it comes down to actually doing it. At that point, all the advice in the world can’t disguise certain start up costs and learning curves. But for the intrepid retirement age entrepreneur, many avenues of money-making potential are available, you just have to know where to find them.
Let’s take, for example, any particular skill set you have acquired over your lifetime. It doesn’t have to be something too taxing like banking advice or estate planning, it could be something as simple as repairing bicycles or gardening or home decorating. Little tasks like this will always find an audience, because many neighbourhoods these days are referred to as being ‘money rich and time poor’ – that means they are willing to pay handsomely for something else to do the things they haven’t got time to do.
You could even become a local guide if you live in a tourist hotspot. The trick is to think about a service you can provide without stretching yourself. Paying customers await!
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