5 Reasons to Consider Working in Retirement

For many people, retirement means taking a well-deserved rest from work and spending more time with your family and hobbies.

But not everyone will choose to give up work completely. And if you find yourself feeling bored or lonely or concerned that your pension isn’t stretching as far as you’d like, you might want to consider continuing work after retiring.

Read on for five benefits of working in retirement and how you can find full or part-time work as a retiree.

5 Benefits of Working After Retirement

1. Make New Friends and Connections

Worldwide, one in four adults over 60 suffers from loneliness. This is partly due to the social isolation that fully retiring from work can cause.

With the mental and physical effects of loneliness ranging from a higher risk of depression to increased cases of heart disease, it’s important to combat that feeling in your retirement.

Choosing to continue working or returning to it can help you beat loneliness by maintaining social connections and forging new friendships with your colleagues. You may even find your social circle broadening as you work with different groups of people.

2. Look After Your Brain

Combating loneliness isn’t the only mental benefit that working in retirement can bring. Continuing to work in your 60s and beyond can provide mental stimulation in the form of:

• Mentally demanding work
• New problems and challenges to overcome
• Opportunities to learn new skills
• A change in environment

Those experiences encourage new neural pathways to form, which has been linked to improved brain health and a lower risk of dementia.

3. Combat Boredom

While retirement provides you with lots of free time, finding things to fill that time can be difficult. This is a problem that many retirees struggle with, but it’s also one that can be solved with a post-retirement job.

If you’re struggling with a lack of direction or loss of purpose in your retirement, consider pursuing a different kind of work. You might find that the excitement and satisfaction of a job well done will help stave off your boredom.

4. Pursue Your Interests

Is there a dream job or career that you never got the chance to follow? Whether you’ve always wanted to work with animals, make money from your art, or give back to a community that has supported you, post-retirement could be the perfect time to make a career switch and give that dream job a go. 

In fact, pursuing a different type of work in your retirement has become so popular that it even has its own name – an encore career.

With your life savings at hand and fewer dependents to take care of, you’ll likely be under less pressure to earn a high wage. This means you can choose to prioritize a job that matches your interests and dedicate more time to your passions.

5. Boost Your Income

While you’ll be able to benefit from a pension in retirement, having an extra source of income can help you pay for healthcare and other expenses, trying new experiences such as travelling, and making your savings last longer. By continuing to work, you can enjoy your retirement in the comfort of financial security. 

However, it’s important to note that any income you earn after retiring may affect your pension and other benefits you receive. Make sure to check the laws where you live about working past retirement – for example, the US and UK both have limits on the amount of income you can earn before your pension is affected.

How to Find a Job After Retirement

Whether you’re looking for full-time or part-time work, there are several options for retirees and those approaching retirement. And nowadays, flexible working is becoming more common, meaning you can choose to work from home or set your own hours.

Here, we’ll discuss the initial steps you need to take to find a job after retirement.

1. What Do You Want to Achieve?

Consider what reasons you have for continuing to work after retirement. Perhaps you want to:

• Earn extra income
• Make new friends
• Work from home
• Learn something new
• Pursue an interest

Once you’ve identified your reasons, think about what sort of work would help you achieve those goals. 

For example, if you want to earn some extra money to go traveling, then a short-term full-time job might be the best option. But if you’re looking for work that will keep your brain active without impacting too much of your free time, then part-time work might suit you better.

2. What Skills and Experience Do You Have?

Assessing your current skills and experience will help you identify the area of industry that would best suit you. Write a list of both your hard and soft skills, then check job sites and listings to see what sort of work matches your skill set.

If you already have an idea of the sort of work you’d like to take on, check if you’re missing any necessary skills or qualifications required for that position.

Remember, even if you’ve never worked in a particular area before, you still have many decades of experience behind you and a set of transferable skills that will help you in any line of work.

3. What Are Your Next Steps?

Once you know why you want to continue working in retirement and have a good idea of your skill set, you can start taking practical steps to find the job that’s right for you. These steps include:

• Filling in any skill gaps by undertaking training
• Updating your résumé
• Letting people know you’re looking for work
• Networking with other professionals
• Volunteering your services to build experience

Remember that starting a new job, whatever your age, can take time and patience, but the more prepared you are, the smoother the process will be.

Work-from-Home Jobs for Retirees

Working from home can be a great option for retirees, as it provides:

• Flexible hours
• The freedom to choose when and how you work
• A more cost-effective way of working

However, with so many work-from-home options out there, it’s important to do your research – and follow our steps above – to make sure you have a clear idea of what you want.

Proofreading and Editing

A work-from-home job that’s perfect for seniors is proofreading and/or editing. Both proofreading and editing can be stimulating work that will keep you focused and flex your mental muscles, and it can be done from just about anywhere in the world.

Even if you’ve never done either before, it’s possible to make a career switch with the right training.

Here at Knowadays, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about becoming a proofreader or editor. We can even provide you with guaranteed work in your retirement. What’s more, we offer both courses as a bundle so you can save 15%.

Not sure if proofreading or editing is right for you? Give either course a try for free!