What’s one of the smartest things you can do when retiring abroad? Find a retirement hobby that keeps life exciting AND makes you money!
Here are some tried and tested suggestions for you…
- Teach English
- Take & Sell Photos
- Become a Travel Guide
- Become a Freelance Writer
- Participate in Branding Contests
- Earn Money Locally or Remotely on Airtasker
- Build Your Own Online Business
Hobbies That Make Money #1: Teach English
English is your native language and you move to a non English-speaking country? Congrats! You have a skill that people will happily pay for.
One of the great things about teaching English is that it’s so flexible. You can teach for just a few hours per week, or several hours every day… it’s up to you.
How to get started? Ask in local schools or institutes if they need an English teacher. Place classified ads in stores or online. Let expats and locals know that you’d like to teach English… someone is bound to point you towards an opportunity.
These days, people all over the world want to learn English and in some places you’ll discover that it is a job that pays pretty well too. It also offers a fine way of getting to know the local people better and finding out more about your new home country’s culture.
Hobbies That Make Money #2: Take & Sell Photos
This hobby may be more difficult to make money from, but if it interests you then it is well worth giving a try. You aren’t a photography expert? Don’t worry. Nowadays there are so many courses out there. And half the fun in retirement is to learn something new, isn’t it?
For example, check out this Photography Masterclass at Udemy, a well respected online course provider. The course teaches you how to take photos and sell them for a profit. Perfect! That’s exactly what you need. The course has over 70,000 students enrolled and gets excellent reviews.
All of the countries we talk about at RetirePedia have incredible scenery and exotic cultural events. That’s a great market for professionally taken photos.
It’s even better if you live somewhere that is a little bit off the beaten track. People love to see evocative and unique photos of interesting places. As an expat, you’ll have the advantage of having a completely fresh perspective on the place you retire to.
Hobbies That Make Money #3: Become a Travel Guide
After you have been in your new home for a while it is likely that you become a bit of an expert on the area and the culture. This means that you could offer your services as a travel guide. Many tourists would love to have a knowledgeable guide who speaks their language and lives in the place they are visiting.
This can be a part-time job where you get hired every now and then rather than a full-time commitment. It is a fantastic way of meeting lots of new people and sharing your enthusiasm for your new home country.
Hobbies That Make Money #4: Become a Freelance Writer
Special Tip
International Living Magazine, one of the big players in the live and retire abroad space, pays up to $400 for a single article.
Oh, the joys of the Internet! It provides us with so many possibilities to do something we love and make money with it. Perhaps the most rewarding for someone like you who has moved abroad is that of writing for online or offline publications like travel and lifestyle magazines.
After all, you’ll learn lots of things on this adventure that you are keen to share with the world.
To get started, sign up for one of the many freelance sites, and offer your writing services there. You may want to do a few free guest posts on quality blogs first, to build up a portfolio. This will help you getting paid jobs.
My favorite freelancer marketplace is Upwork. Another good site, which specializes in writing jobs only, is called iWriter.
Need some help with your freelance writing career? The “Complete Freelance Writing Online Course: Beginner to Pro” will get you up to speed in no time.
Kirsty Stuart, the course leader quit her day job in 2012 to become a freelance writer. So she knows what she’s talking about. She’s mainly a travel writer, so her course is the perfect fit for you as someone who considers living or retiring abroad.
Hobbies That Make Money #5: Participate in Branding Contests
Now, this is a really unusual way to earn some money on the side, offered by a company called Squadhelp. In 2018, Squadhelp was recognized by Inc.com as one of the 6 most innovative companies of that year.
Your task at Squadhelp is to help companies find the most suitable and memorable names, slogans or logos for their brand.
The process works in the form of contests. Brands are holding contests where you submit your ideas to. The contest holders rate your ideas. If your idea is selected by the company, you earn a cash reward which typically ranges between $100 and $300.
What I like about Squadhelp is that – unlike with other freelance opportunities – you don’t need technical skills like graphic design, photography, web design, or the likes to participate. All you need is a love of words and a knack for branding.
On the downside, you’ll only earn money when your idea is selected. But imagine your sense of pride when you are the brain child behind a startup’s name that may become the next Facebook!
Check out Squadhelp’s FAQs here.
#6: Earn Money Locally or Remotely on Airtasker
Airtasker lets you offer your skills both for local, in-person jobs (currently only available in Australia, UK and Ireland) and remote jobs that can be done online.
There’s a huge range of tasks. From home-based activities such as handyman services, cleaning or gardening to office-based tasks, such as marketing, graphic design and writing. There’s also a demand for unusual and exciting jobs like wedding help, cake baking or costume making.
Learn more about how Airtasker works here. Then check out their ‘browse tasks’ feature. By default, it shows you jobs posted within 50 kilometers (31 miles) from your location and remote jobs. Pretty cool!
Hobbies That Make Money #7: Build Your Own Online Business
This is – you guessed it – my favorite. Not only because it’s what I do, but also because it’s the one retirement hobby that enables you to build something of your own. You may have heard the saying… if you don’t build your own dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs.
You’ve probably done that long enough during your working years (built someone else’s dream), so isn’t it about time to build your own?
You are bound to have a passion, a skill or special interest that you can turn into a business. Or how about building a website about your new home country, or a certain part of it? The possibilities are endless, once you start thinking about it.
Click here for an in-depth review about the system that I am using to build my website and online business.
Which one of these money-making retirement hobbies is your favorite? Or do you have another suggestion? I would love to hear about it. Please share in the comments below.
