This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How old is too old for side hustling? That is today's question, not really. It's a variation of today's question. We're gonna hear from a retiree, or at least someone who's getting close to retirement. But yeah, how old is too old for side hustling?
Well, I'm sorry to say once you were past the age of, I don't know, what is it, 22, 23? It's just, you know, all downhill from there, very little side hustling takes place after that age. I can't even do a dead pan. Like, you know, it's not true. Obviously that's not true.
We have heard throughout the years from people who are 70 years old and older, from people who are 75, 80 years old, building websites, starting new projects, doing all kinds of stuff, just as we have heard from people who are like 12 years old, you know? I think that's one of the coolest things about this world is you can kind of create what works for you. You can use the skills you've acquired at whatever age you are, the life experience you've acquired, you know, which only increases as you get older. And for me, you know, one of the things I enjoy about being on tour is hearing from people of all ages about their stories. So all that to say, in this episode, a caller wonders about opportunities for retirees.
Are some side hustles inherently better for someone in that situation? Let's talk it out. Quick little sponsor message, and then we'll dive in. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Jonas. I went to the Happiness to Pursuit Tour, and I've been following ever since.
So here's my situation. My partner and I are getting close to retirement age, and we'll be moving to North Carolina from upstate New York. The cost of living is lower, and we're looking forward to more moderate temperatures during the winter as well. I have a pension, and we'll be able to draw on social security in the next few years. It's a good amount of money, but we feel more comfortable with a bit more.
Plus, I like working. I'm ready to lead my current career, but I don't wanna sit in a rocking chair all day. So put me to work. What side hustle opportunities are best for retirees? [Music]
All right, I definitely don't want you to be in that rocking chair all day either.
You know, most of what you hear on the show is possible for retirees. Let's just start with that. Again, we featured saddle swords of all ages. So the real question is, what's best for any particular person? And in these situations, I always encourage someone to take stock.
Like, let's take a little inventory of your skills, of your life experience, of your knowledge. Like, what are all those things that you know about? Things you know about, things you know how to do, areas of expertise, and try to think really broadly. Like, don't just think about what you've learned for your career, but everything else. Think about the hard skills and the soft skills.
You know, hard skills are like something technical that you know how to do. Soft skills are your skills of communication, your skills of follow-up, your skills of analysis, you know, and so on. You can make a whole list of these kinds of things. And sometimes here, something jumps out right away, okay? When you're like, oh yeah, this makes perfect sense.
I could do this, right? Let's assume it doesn't. I would also ask in this process of taking an inventory, what is the goal? Like, what are we trying to achieve here? Because side hustles can be all kinds of things from, you know, $500 extra a month to a seven-figure business.
You know, we featured quite a gamut. So here, you know, in this situation, we know what it is. Like, our caller has said, like, they want to be more comfortable with some extra income to pad their savings and pension. That's great. You know, it makes sense.
It also seems doable. As I said, we've had seven-figure side hustle stories, but it's a much more doable goal, you know, to say, okay, they're not trying to make a huge amount of money right away. So basically, you've got your goal. You've got your inventory. And then what you want to do is create a menu of options.
A menu of options where you go from skills and knowledge to specific offers. And I haven't talked about this recently, but something that I'm really big on, and I wrote a good bit about it in the side hustle book, actually, is you want to think in terms of offers. Don't think about business ideas. That's like this vague kind of grandiose concept. You want to think about offers, very specific offers.
Here is a product that I am making and selling for this price to this group of people. Here is a service I'm going to provide, again, for this price to this group of people. So you want to go from that general idea, skills, knowledge to specific offers, create your menu of options. Like, here are all the different things I could do. Okay, what jumps out here?
You know, now we're getting more specific. And, you know, most likely you're going to come up with at least three or four ideas, specific ideas, I should say. You're going to have three to four specific options at a minimum. And from there, you just have to make a choice, right? We've talked about how to make those kinds of decisions in other episodes, but I think that's a good starting point for retirees or really for anyone.
So good luck to you and all of our listeners. Listeners, you're the best. Thanks for being out there. If you've got a question or comment, sidehustleschool.com/questions. A new episode comes out every single day.
You can get it wherever you got this one. And of course, it's all completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
