Doing Something Different

When people find out I retired early, they often assume that I consult with my former company. They are often surprised that I don't. My response is that if I wanted to do the same work, I wouldn't have retired. Since I retired, I was interested in different jobs than the one I had been doing.  Since most of the work I do is completely unrelated to my career in R&D, I am getting paid to learn about different jobs.   Here's are the types of jobs I've worked since retiring:

Teaching.  I teach an after school program and also tutored students for college prep exams.   While I don't have the qualities of being a career teacher, I do enjoy these short term teaching and tutoring assignments.   In both cases, teaching plans are developed and provided by the franchise headquarters.   Unfortunately, the tutoring company has reduced my hours to about zero since the company wants teachers to commit more time.

Tax preparation.  Except for our time in Japan, I've always done our own tax return by hand.  I'm a bit of a tax geek, always learning about ways to minimize our tax liability and give less money to our wasteful government.  So I've been doing a seasonal tax preparation job every year since retiring.  Basically, I'm getting paid to learn about the tax law to help individuals (and me) keep more of their money.

Non profit management.  OK, being an executive director was a little closer to my pre-retirement job of being an R&D manager.  However, it was different enough to be interesting.  It also made me realize that it wasn't worth going into business for myself if I wasn't going to clear at least $250,000 a year to make up for all the headaches of running a company.

Playing golf.  This is my only volunteer job, playing golf as an aide to players that need assistance.  I didn't play much golf when I was working, since I thought it was a waste of time.  Golf still is a waste of time, but I justify the effort since I am helping someone enjoy the sport.

Someday, I may get an offer to do something similar to what I did before retiring.   I may consider doing the work for a short period.  However, for now, I'm glad I'm dong different types of jobs than what I did during my career.

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This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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