Monetize A Hobby Part II

I wanted to give a couple of other examples to what I talked about in the last post. Last time I wrote about the potential to monetize my firefighting hobby.

My in-laws are collectors. They don't collect anything in particular, but they just buy whatever they can find. They really enjoy going from garage sale to garage sale trying to fund stuff on the cheap. They have accumulated two houses full of stuff. A lot of it has some value, more than they paid for it. They do a good job of finding things that cost very little money.

Just recently they started to rent a booth in a consignment shop in Phoenix. They have to pay $175 per month in rent and can work the rent off in the store at $7 an hour if they want to. The other day they were dropping off a hutch they had just bought that morning for $50. A shopper at the store bought it from them in the parking lot for $175. They do this all the time.

They have invested a lot of their time in this because they love buying stuff which is why they can have success. Fortunately, my wife does not share this passion but chances are that one day she will need to help with reducing the inventory.

Their hobby easily covers a big portion of their expsenses.

A neighbor of ours is a retired policeman in his 70s. I'm sure he gets a pension but I do not know any of those details. A long time ago he bought a backhoe to help with the site prep for building his house and because he thought it would be fun to have. He is now on his second backhoe after upgrading to a Cat a few years ago. He charges $60 an hour and can have as much work as he wants. How much would just ten hours a week at $60 an hour, playing on a toy, supplement your income?

Both examples require some capital and some time but both activities are fun for these people. There are more ideas like this out there. Hopefully these posts will get you to think along these lines.

If you buy into your retirement paycheck coming from several different sources then this type of fun income should be considered. One last point is that having a job, of sorts, in retirement, whether it pays or not, makes for healthier aging physically and mentally.