60 Low-stress Jobs for Retirees

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You may be retired but looking for ways to occupy your time. You could indulge yourself in hobbies, spend time with friends and family, or travel.

Other retirees may decide to return to work, whether to earn more money or simply because they enjoy working and working keeps their minds stimulated.

In this article, we’ll discuss 60 jobs for retirees. These jobs range from part-time jobs to volunteer work to full-time jobs.

Let’s jump in.

1. Take Online Surveys

Filling out online surveys is one of the easier ways to make money. While you won't be able to make much money with surveys, there are various platforms that you can use.

Signing up for multiple survey sites allows you to make more money over time.

Sign up for free for each of the below survey sites to maximize your earnings. You might be able to earn up to $10 per week per site from filling out surveys. Get up to $36 for signing up to every site below.

• Swagbucks – Earn up to $10 just for signing up. Fill out surveys, earn cash back from shopping, make money playing games, and more.
• Survey Junkie – Snag another up to $10 when you sign up. Make up to $10 per week filling out surveys.
• InboxDollars – Get $5 instantly for signing up. Similar to Swagbucks, make money filling out surveys, from cash back, and from doing tasks.
• Opinion Outpost – While you won't earn a sign-up bonus here, Opinion Outpost pays out $390,000 per month in rewards. Get your share.
• Kashkick – Get $1 as soon as you fill out your profile.
• MyPoints – Earn a $10 sign-on bonus when you finish an introductory offer.

After you sign up for these great platforms, read more about additional paid online survey platforms right here.

You can also rotate between multiple survey sites to get the best surveys. Doing this may lead you to earn a relatively easy $100 or more per month. 

2. Drive for Uber or Lyft

Many people, retired or not, can make a living providing rideshare services through platforms such as Lyft or Uber. All you need to do is add these apps to your phone and apply so you can provide rides for people around your area. 

The average driver earns an average of $17 per hour or more by driving people to where they need to go. 

If you live in an area where there isn’t much public transit and you’re willing to drive during peak times, you may be able to earn even more money.

3. Deliver Food for DoorDash

If you'd rather use your car for delivery services, DoorDash is one app that allows you to do this. 

When a customer orders food from local restaurants, your job will be to pick the food up and deliver it to the customer. A DoorDash driver, also known as a Dasher, will need to apply via DoorDash.com. 

DoorDash reports that you’ll be paid $2 to $10+ per order plus occasional bonuses and 100% of the tips.

4. Coach Kids' Sports

Coaching kids’ sports might be right for you if you have a solid knowledge of baseball, basketball, football, or any other sport that kids are playing locally. Generally speaking, you won’t need any qualifications to coach kids for local league games.

Coaching high school sports, however, will require a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education or a related field.

5. Be a Virtual Assistant

The need for virtual assistants is increasing as business owners need help with various tasks such as posting content on social media, answering emails and calls, creating infographics, and similar. 

A virtual assistant will commonly work with bloggers and small business owners as a way to increase their revenue while saving them time. 

There’s a large pay range for VAs, commonly as low as $15 per hour or lower and as high as $60 per hour or higher, depending on what you specialize in.

You can look for VA gigs on Fiverr, Upwork, or in Facebook groups.

6. Author an eBook

Writing and selling an eBook leads to passive income, provided you’re able to promote it successfully. Some eBook authors even hire ghostwriters to write books for them after the author provides a detailed outline. 

Amazon KDP is a popular place to sell eBooks, though the competition can be fierce. You can also choose to sell your eBook on your own website, should you have one. When you do this, you’ll be able to keep all of the proceeds instead of only collecting a royalty.

7. Work for a Non Profit

While a nonprofit organization may not pay well, working in one can be rewarding, so one option is to get involved with local nonprofits and charities and volunteer at their events. 

There are non-profits for all sorts of niches, and the skills you earned during your career might be of great benefit to the company you opt to work for.

8. Take Care of Pets

Petsitting may be right for you if you’re a pet lover and want to help your neighbors by taking care of their pets when they’re away. 

Consider using Rover if you want to get into dog care. Rover is a site where you can be hooked up with local dog owners who need assistance taking care of their dogs.

9. Be a Bookkeeper

Bookkeepers track business owners' income and expenses and generate financial statements such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements.

You don’t need credentials to be a bookkeeper, but in order to be successful, you’ll need training. Such courses can be found on Coursera, to name one platform. You can find the Intuit Bookkeeping Professional Certificate course there.

With that course completed, you’ll be ready to be a bookkeeper and trained to use Quickbooks Online.

QuickBooks is the most popular small business accounting software. Securely import your business's and side hustles' transactions and organize them automatically. You can also invoice customers and accept credit cards and bank payments. Tax filing is smooth with QuickBooks as well.

Sign up today.

Once you start working as a bookkeeper, you can expect to make $25 an hour or more, while top bookkeepers can earn as much as $60 an hour or more.

10. Be a Handyman

A handyman is experienced in fixing and repairing things around the house. From heating panels to large appliances, handymen will be able to take care of home-related problems. 

Handymen earn a wide range of pay depending on what they’re doing; sometimes as low as $20 an hour but also possibly as much as $70 an hour or more.

11. Do Crafts and Sell Them

Selling crafts is a slow-paced job for retirees who want to keep their hands busy while still making some money. If you know woodworking, crocheting, or other similar hobbies creating tangible products, then you might be able to sell crafts for money.

A great place to sell your work is Etsy, which can be easily accessed online through a laptop or on a mobile device. You can also create your own store on Shopify if you make your crafts into a serious full-time business.

Shopify is a complete commerce platform that lets you start, grow, and manage a business. Create an online store and sell to anyone on the internet. Shopify has dropshipping integration and comes with a 14-day free trial.

Start your online business on Shopify today.

12. Create a Blog

Blogging is a popular way to make money online. There are a few benefits when you run a successful blog, such as:

• Working from the comfort of your home
• Getting started without experience
• Writing about topics you love

• Setting your own hours

Apart from these advantages, blogging also has a huge potential to make a lot of money, where people have made over $50,000 every month through affiliate marketing, display ads, and selling their own products. 

This being said, blogging is a difficult endeavor that can take a few years to get off the ground. Approximately 8% of bloggers make a full-time income,, and approximately 83% of bloggers never make $100, so keep this in mind. 

Make a solid strategy when you're first getting started and adapt as you learn new things. This will help you become successful in blogging.

13. Work in a Library

Working in a library might be right for you if you enjoy working in a quiet environment. 

You generally only need a GED or high school diploma to work in a library, but you will more than likely need a Bachelor’s degree to be a Librarian.

Check your local library for both paid and volunteer opportunities.

14. Take Care of Children

For some, taking care of children can be a low-stress job in retirement, especially if you have a lot of experience with children from your own children and grandchildren. 

Moreover, if you’ve had experience in childcare or have had kids of your own, it may make you a better childcare provider.

While this is a more common job for teens, you can find babysitting work on sites such as Care.com. You might be able to find consistent work on this site or by talking to those in your area.

15. Create a Podcast

Can you think of a topic that you’re passionate about? By starting a podcast, you can earn money and build a following of people who are interested in hearing your perspective about your niche.. 

A well-monetized podcast can make money through sponsored advertising, affiliate marketing, and selling products about the topics you speak of.

16. Get Into Consulting

If you’ve retired and have vast experience in a particular field, you can use that experience to provide consulting services to clients. 

Companies will often have short-term needs for retirees who have a great amount of experience but don’t need long-term, full-time work. As a result, consulting can be a great way to choose your own hours and generally earn a high hourly rate, depending on your niche.

Many consultants charge over $200 per hour for difficult tasks that the average worker struggles with. With a few clients, you could earn a sizeable income in your retirement as a consultant.

17. Become a Real Estate Agent

Helping clients buy and sell real estate can be a lucrative job to do as a retiree. This type of work requires you to become certified to begin.

The more real estate transactions that you take part in, the more money you’ll make. If you become good at selling high-valued homes, you could make a 6-figure salary in a year.

Networking is an important part of being a real estate agent, so using social media effectively is recommended.

18. Do Freelance Writing

Freelance writers often help bloggers, marketers, and authors create content for them. There are many freelance writers out there, so if you choose to do this for money, be sure to give yourself a competitive edge by practicing your writing as close to daily as possible.

The better of a writer you are and the more revenue you can generate for your clients, the more you’ll be able to charge for the content you create.

You can find work as a freelance writer on places like Facebook groups, Fiverr, or FlexJobs.

FlexJobs is the #1 job search site for hand-screened flexible and remote jobs. You can also get resume, coaching, and career help.

Get your next work-from-home job on FlexJobs.

Using a professional writing tool can help you be a better writer so that you can land more gigs.

Grammarly helps you write mistake-free in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other app you use. You'll write better in seconds. Improve your spelling, grammar, tone of voice, and writing style with Grammarly.

Sign up today.

19. Get Into Transcription

A transcriptionist transcribes audio to text, and there are a few services out there where you can earn money doing this.

On Rev.com, you can earn money as a transcriptionist. You’ll type out text from the audio that’s played. Clark.com reports you can earn around $400 per month if you work 15 hours per week.

Sign up with Rev and pass their initial test, and get started.

20. Work as a Forum Moderator

Many companies employ forum moderators to handle their online communication platforms. A forum moderator ensures that everyone in the chat room adheres to the guidelines set forth by the company for posting content, as well as keeping discussions constructive. 

These jobs are often done from home and generally require no formal education besides knowing how the forum platform works.

21. Do Work for Charities

If you would like to use your time to help those in need, charity work could be right for you. Charity work often focuses on specific problems or areas where something can be improved. 

Working for charities can be a great low-stress job you take after retirement. You’ll also be working to make change for others for the better, which is often rewarding in itself.

22. Work in an Animal Shelter

If you love animals and want to help them find their forever homes, then working in an animal shelter might just be the job you’re looking for. 

Shelter work can be challenging as you will often deal with abandoned and abused animals, but this can also be very rewarding as you’ll help them find new and loving homes.

23. Become an Entrepreneur

If you don’t plan on sitting around all day during your retirement, then you may want to look into building your own business. 

Building your own business has its risks, and many entrepreneurs fail, but those who keep at it have a much higher likelihood of success, and a successful business owner has limitless income while also growing a company that they are passionate about.

Here are some example businesses you can start in your retirement:

• Selling baked goods
• Selling hand-crafted items
• A dropshipping business
• A print on demand business

24. Be a Life Coach

Being a life coach involves helping people with a particular facet of their life, which you can do either online or in person. 

Typical things a life coach helps clients with include:

• Help with personal challenges
• Help with career challenges
• Be a support through a transition
• Be a motivator

While you aren’t required to be certified to be a life coach, it can be helpful to get training and credentials to show potential clients that you are serious and can back up what you say you will help your clients with.

25. Do Data Entry

Another low-stress job that you may be interested in is data entry, where you’ll need basic computer skills along with quick and accurate typing. You’ll transfer data from one location to the company’s data system, such as a database or spreadsheet. 

Data entry generally pays $10 to $15 an hour. It can be pretty tedious at times, but it’s often very simple for the money involved.

26. Tutor High School Students

If you have previous teaching experience, then tutoring could be a good source of income while you’re retired. It may help to have a college degree in the subject you’re tutoring, though that’ll depend on the subject.

You can charge a wide hourly rate range based on what you tutor, your experience, and where you’re doing the tutoring.

Here’s an article on how much you should charge to be a tutor.

27. Be a Greeter at Walmart

A relatively easy job is to be a greeter at Walmart. The main task you do is provide a pleasant and friendly greeting to shoppers as they enter the store. You'll also need to help people if they have any questions. 

Being a greeter is pretty simple, and Walmart generally looks to hire retirees for this low-stress job.

28. Do Proofreading

Proofreading involves looking for any punctuational, grammatical, and syntactical errors within a document. 

Whether you work for a business or do it on your own, proofreading can be a low-stress job to do in retirement that can earn you potentially a few thousand dollars per month.

29. Become a Photographer

As a photographer, you’ll generally specialize in an area, such as portraits, weddings, landscapes, and similar. 

You can choose to be a freelance photographer, or you can provide your services at functions such as festivals, weddings, and other events. 

It’s up to you what you’ll charge to be a photographer if you do it as a business. Doing research on what others in your area are charging for the type of photography you’re looking to specialize in will help you come up with numbers.

30. Do Painting

You can find work as a painter on websites such as Simply Hired, where you’ll earn money painting houses. 

You might be paid by the hour or paid by the room, if you charge per square foot.

It’s common to make between $16 to $26 per hour painting, depending where you live and your experience.

31. Get Into Interior Decorating

Those with a creative eye might find interior decorating an interesting post-retirement side hustle or business to take on.

As an interior decorator, you’ll help homeowners design the inside of their homes to be aesthetically pleasing based on their tastes.

32. Translate Documents

If you have native-level knowledge of another language, translating documents is another job or hustle to consider as a retiree. There are often many projects you can take on in this field, such as:

• Translating social media posts
• Translating websites
• Translating paper documents

You also have the option of live translation, which can pay more as you’ll need to translate in real-time versus from prewritten documents.

33. Become a Massage Therapist

Massage therapists help relax their clients’ sore and tight muscles. You can become a certified massage therapist and work for a spa or massage parlor.

Being a massage therapist can be rewarding as you’ll help ease the pain and tension your clients are experiencing.

34. Work at a Park

If you love nature and want to see wild animals in their natural habitat, you can look into being a park ranger or even a guide. 

According to recent estimates, a park ranger can typically earn between $30k to $70k every year. Even if you were to work on a part-time basis only, you could still make around $15 an hour. 

Be sure to check for available vacancies at USAjobs.gov.

35. Start a Travel Agency

Working as an online travel agent can be an interesting business venture because you’ll help others plan vacations all around the world. 

If you don’t want to start your own agency, you can consider being a franchise owner of an online travel company where you can get paid training. If you take this option, you’ll earn money from commissions through the following:

• Hotel sales
• Travel insurance
• Resorts sales
• Cruise sales

36. Clean Houses

While cleaning houses is physically demanding, starting a business like this can be a lucrative career where you can charge anywhere between $25 and $90 per hour. 

You can find clients through Facebook or Craigslist to get as much as you can out of your business. 

You can also try Care.com.

37. Volunteer

Being a volunteer won’t bring you money, but it can be rewarding. If you have free time during your retirement, you might be interested in volunteering. 

To do this, you can contact local groups that need help. You can volunteer to do many things, including mental health crisis lines, business coaching, working with kids, and similar.

38. Do Graphic Design

Graphic designers are responsible for creating graphics and visual communications for businesses and companies. 

As such, you will need to be efficient in designing brochures, logos, flyers, and even web content. 

To maximize how much you earn, you might consider working for multiple clients simultaneously so that you can be sure to have your days filled with work.

39. Be a Professional Gardener

Gardening can be fun and can even earn you some extra money. 

You can make money selling vegetables, shrubs, and other plants.

Getting into gardening doesn’t require specific training, but there are many free and affordable courses online that will give you ideas on how to make money with a garden.

Check out Skillshare to learn more about gardening.

Skillshare is an online learning platform with thousands of creative courses and classes taught by experts to help you learn new skills. Increase your value at work or use new skills to create a business of your own.

Sign up for Skillshare here.

40. Be a Parking Lot Attendant

You can also work as a parking lot attendant, where you’ll be greeting guests at various locations. 

As a parking lot attendant, you will need to look after the cars inside a parking lot to ensure that they remain safe. 

You’ll also do customer service-related tasks such as collecting tolls. 

If you work at a parking lot where people park for days at a time, such as a bus terminal or airport, you may also assist customers in finding their cars if they don’t remember where they parked days back.

41. Work as an Office Clerk

There are many positions in a variety of industries that require general office staff. As an office clerk, you will be expected to perform various tasks, including:

• Sorting through mail
• Filing records
• Answering phones
• Responding to emails

It’s tough to say what you’ll earn as an office clerk as it relies heavily on what you do.

42. Become a Hairdresser or Barber

Hairdressers and barbers make money cutting and styling clients’ hair. You’ll need formal training to be a hairdresser or barber, and you’ll find a job at a salon or barber shop.

These jobs can be well-paying as you’ll earn your hourly rate plus any tips you pick up from clients you work on.

43. Be a Movie Extra

No qualifications or acting experience are needed to become an extra — pretty much anyone can do it. 

Sometimes all it takes is to answer an ad for a movie or show, while other times, you may want to find an agent who will try and supply you with more regular gigs. 

You can earn anywhere between $100 and $200 per day, though the availability of this work is highly dependent on where you live.

44. Work at a Camp

Working at a camp can be a great, low-stress job. You’ll generally work with children and do things like supervising them while they swim, play outside, do arts and crafts, and learn new things about nature.

You may also do sleepovers out in the woods and other outdoor activities.

45. Be a Tour Guide

A tour guide takes tourists and travelers around their city or town. You’ll want to know hot spots that people are interested in and be good at telling stories about the locations.

You might need to market yourself a bit to make sure people are always signing up for your tours, or you can work for a company that specializes in tours.

According to Indeed.com, the average tour guide makes around $22.71 per hour.

46. Turn Your Spare Room into an Airbnb

As a retiree,  you can host a spare room on Airbnb for travelers. Doing this won’t just help you earn money but it might also cause you to meet some interesting people, if you end up socializing with those that stay at your place. 

When you sign up on Airbnb, you’ll want to post pictures of your property and respond to interested parties. You may also want to get a special lock in your house to give guests their own entrance if the bedroom and bathroom are separate from the rest of your house.

47. Teach ESL Online

If you are a native English speaker and have some teaching experience, then teaching ESL might be a good part-time gig for you to do in retirement, 

Two such companies where you can teach English online are VIPKid and Preply.

Check them out to earn some extra money in retirement.

48. Rent Your Stuff

If you have a lot of stuff around your house that you don’t use anymore, you can earn money by renting them out. These can include:

• Clothes
• Equipment
• Tools
• Car
• Parking space

This is a somewhat easy way to earn money without having to do much. All you need is to list your items on a platform such as FriendWithA to see who wants to rent out your items. 

The amount you earn will depend entirely on how much you charge to rent each item and how much interest there is in each item you rent.

49. Touch-up Resumes

When the job market is hot, people are applying to jobs daily and the first thing a recruiter or hiring manager sees is their cover letter and resume. 

Not everyone knows how to effectively write a resume and if you’re skilled at making a resume look spectacular, then you can earn money touching up or making resumes for people so they can stand out on job applications.

The higher your success rate at helping people land interviews and jobs, the higher you can charge for this service.

50. Work as a Chat Operator

Working as a chat operator means that you will work for a business or company to answer customer questions and forward leads to the sales department. This low-stress job only requires you to sit in front of your computer for your shift and monitor chat windows. 

Being a chat operator can be a part-time or full-time gig, depending on what you’re looking for.

51. Make Money Playing Video Games

If you enjoy playing mobile games, then a great way to earn money is by downloading apps like Mistplay and Swagbucks. You won’t earn much money doing this, but it can be a great way to earn a bit of change while enjoying your free time. 

If you’re looking for something a bit more serious, you can always stream videos on Twitch and if you’re good at it, you could make decent money by building an audience.

52. Mow Lawns

Many people have lawns that they would rather someone else take care of. 

Mowing lawns can be a particularly well paying side hustle for retirees if you have a riding lawn mower, which takes some of the physical labor out of it.

On average, you can earn anywhere between $30 to $80 for every lawn you mow, depending on how big it is. 

If you live in a neighborhood where people need to have their lawn mowed weekly or bi-weekly, you could certainly earn a fair share of monthly income with enough clients.

53. Rake Leaves

Similar to mowing lawns, you can make money raking leaves in the Fall for your clients. This is a physically demanding job, but it can also keep you in good shape in your older years.

It’s common to charge between $15 and $45 per hour for raking leaves and disposing of them, depending on where you live.

54. Plow Snow

If you live in colder climates, then you could consider shoveling or plowing snow around your neighborhood. Depending on the property, you may need to remove snow from various areas, such as:

• Steps
• Decks
• Driveways
• Paths

While this will involve hard work, you can earn between $25 to $75 per hour on average.

55. Get Into Bartending

Bartending is a job you can do in retirement that also serves as a way to be social.

You’ll serve drinks to customers, and you may need to come up with your own drinks, depending on where you choose to work. 

However, before you can get started, you will need to have a bartending license, which you can get by taking classes. If you have good people skills, you’ll be able to earn from both your wage as well as your tips.

56. Do Voice Acting

Voice acting is a job you can consider if you have a good voice for narration or can alter your voice to sound like multiple people or characters.

You don’t need formal training for this job, but practicing helps considerably. In this line of work, you’ll be providing the voice for advertisements, movies, TV shows, and other kinds of entertainment. 

You may also have the option to work from home depending on the studio you work with.

57. Become a DJ

As a DJ, you will perform at weddings and parties and may work in radio as well. 

This job comes with a wide pay range, depending on if you’re running your own business, working at a company, and what you’re doing as a DJ.

58. Be a Professional Cuddler

This may sound like a strange job, but it’s quite legitimate. Being a professional cuddler s one of the more unique job ideas for retirement, but it’s also becoming highly popular all over the world. 

Professional cuddlers cuddle with people to alleviate them from feeling down or help them when they’re struggling emotionally. 

People who are already doing this have reported earning an average of $40 per hour. Be sure to look up different websites that offer these jobs online to get started.

59. Be a Mentor

A mentor of a given field provides coaching to someone who is newer to the field. You may do this for pay, an exchange of services, or pro bono.

If you have decades of experience in a field and want to help the next generation get started, then being a mentor to someone can be game-changing for them.

60. Become a Financial Coach

You could become a financial coach where you can help clients track their spending, give them ways to save money, and help them get out of debt. 

While you don’t need credentials to be a financial coach, you’ll want a strong understanding of how money works and common behaviors that people have around using their money.

Wrapping It Up

By now, you should have an idea of what you want to do during your years of retirement. With such a wide range of jobs just waiting for you to try and make money from, there’s bound to be one that’s just right for you.