Five Retirement Hobbies
That Offer Great Benefits
If you spend any time on these pages, you already know that I believe that hobbies are an important part of life. They are far more than a way to idle away the hours. A good hobby offers a challenge and a lifetime of learning opportunities. When you get proficient at a hobby, you have developed a discipline that can be applied to any other area of your life. There are hundreds of activities that you can become involved with but, for the purpose of this exercise, we’re going to focus on five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits and all of them can be turned into a money-making enterprise if you desire. Some of them may surprise you.
Gardening comes up first on the list because of its popularity. There are garden clubs by the hundreds and some of them are quite sophisticated. This hobby can be very challenging and having a “mentor” or other resource to help you navigate this activity that has occupied people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It is a lifelong learning process that can provide many benefits including fresh herbs for cooking or even for your own little garden stand. There’s a family who has turned their backyard into a lovely garden that offers fresh vegetables, berries and herbs on weekends. The sales not only fund their hobby but create an extra income that they use to fund the college tuition bills their children will be experiencing in a few years. There is so much knowledge connected to gardening that you can literally spend a lifetime mastering the techniques that will make you a successful gardener. Each of these five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits have that in common: learning and developing a skill are needed for full enjoyment of the activity. Gardening will help you stay physically active as well. You’ll be surprised at how sore you can be after a day of weeding and planting. Our next hobby involves even more activity than gardening.
Of the five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits, hiking might be the most strenuous.
Hiking is a great activity that will provide exercise and an exploration of nature at the same time. If you get a little creative, it can also provide you with an incredible learning experience. Taking the time to notice the trees and the plants can make you an expert after a while and it’s something you should be doing anyway because you want to be sure you don’t come in contact with plant that you shouldn’t (like poison ivy). It’s also a way to discover the local wildlife. You should use some caution here because there are definitely some creatures to avoid but that’s part of the learning process. As you progress in your hiking skills, you’ll be developing an expertise that most people don’t realize should be part of a great hobby. A good activity that you can pursue for a lifetime should be challenging and provide a learning curve that will bring purpose to how you’re spending your time. On this page we list five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits, but hiking may be the most unique in that it demands a high level of physical activity as well that will fulfill your need for exercise. Is gardening exercise? Sure, but I think you can see how hiking takes that up a notch and can get very demanding. Can you make money from hiking? You can make money from every activity that we list here and, if you live in an area with mountain trails and waterfalls, making money from a guided hike leading small groups on a three- or four-hour trek through the woods can be an enjoyable way to make a few extra dollars on the weekend. Becoming an expert on what everyone is seeing makes you a guide that will get referrals for other hikes and can actually lead to a full-time business if that’s what you’re looking for. You just need to be a little creative and that’s the hallmark of our next hobby.
Painting is a great hobby that can be a great outlet for you if there is any stress in your life. Like any other skill, it can be learned. You may not end up being as famous as Picasso but don’t think for a moment that you can’t produce a work of art that you can be proud of. And don’t think that you can’t create something that someone will pay you for. Did you know that house portraits are getting more popular than ever? With a little practice you can develop the skills needed to render a painting of someone’s house that they will pay you for. Buildings and landscapes are much easier than portraits in my opinion. I’m always amazed at the people at almost any scenic tourist spot who do caricatures for a fee and some of them are quite good. But, as with any great hobby, painting should not be undertaken because of the income it might generate. Painting is a creative process that should speak to your inner being and many people who have given the hobby a try proclaim it to be one of the most enjoyable pastimes there is. It definitely belongs on this list of five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits but there’s another hobby that might rival it for the skill level involved and the inner satisfaction it can provide.
Learning to play an instrument can be life-changing and, for many, an inner desire that they had always wanted to try. Our daughter has made music her life and she teaches quite a few retirees to develop their love for music and her calendar for voice and piano lessons is pretty full. What she learned from the pandemic is that she can give lessons remotely and she has students throughout the country as well as her new home in the Hudson Valley. She can speak better than I can about how music can be a part of your life and a true gift to yourself and, if you work at it, to others around you. You can learn to play a simple song in a day but there is so much to learn that you can devote your life to this activity and still realize that what you don’t know far exceeds what you do. That’s what a true hobby is for. Learn the basics in a day but then take a lifetime to master. She has supported herself within this genre for decades and enjoys new challenges with students and her own skill level. She still takes voice lessons and, after twenty years of skill development, still hesitates when she has to play the piano in public. We list five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits in this article but any one of them can lead you to a lifetime of enjoyment and the next hobby is the only one of the five that I’ve given serious thought to.
When you learn how much fun cooking is, the biggest problem is finding the time to do it, especially when you’re still working. While some people don’t consider it to be a hobby because almost everyone has to do some form of it, cooking can definitely qualify as a hobby when you actually enjoy doing it. I always enjoyed creating something I had in a restaurant or at somebody’s house. I have made a special Mother’s Day meal for my wife almost since the day our daughter was born because you never want to go out on that day. It’s the busiest day of the year for most restaurants and, when a restaurant is crowded, the quality often suffers. I found out I could make a pretty good meal at home by reading a cookbook and following a recipe. In subsequent years, with the advancement of technology, you can watch a short course on how to prepare almost any dish you can imagine. I urge you to give it a try because, once you make a dish that meets your expectations, you’re hooked. Cooking is definitely a challenging and enjoyable hobby that you can spend a lifetime mastering. It might be the most familiar activity on this list of five retirement hobbies that offer great benefits, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Unless you’ve made a sauce worthy of a great French restaurant, you have no idea of the skill level you need to expertly season and pair your preparation with the appropriate cut of beef, poultry or seafood. A wonderful meal is a joy to consume and a challenge to prepare and that’s what makes a hobby truly great. Can you make money at this hobby as well? I think you know the answer to that one. Do you know how many food trucks and restaurants were started because someone took their love of this hobby to the next level? Have you seen how many retirees have started their own channels on the internet demonstrating their skills? Although this is my favorite hobby on this list, others may be attracted to something else, and it may be an activity not even listed here. The point is to explore the options and make a challenging hobby part of your life. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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