Best Post Retirement Education I Received

After I retired, I was given a $5000 to use towards post retirement training, which excluded golf lessons.  I chose to use my grant towards the following at a local vocational school and a local community college:

• Plumbing - It was an intro course to be an apprentice plumber.   I learned how to make many simple repairs, such as changing faucet stems, and attempted to learn soldering copper tubes.  I didn't pass the soldering part.  One takeaway that I had was to have a local shutoff valve for all faucets and appliances.  When adding new faucets, I always insist of having a local shutoff valve.  It has be a saving factor when I had a faucet leak that could be isolated by the local shutoff valve instead of using the whole house shutoff.
  
  
• Electrical - This was also an intro course to being an apprentice electrician.  Being taught the basics of wiring fixtures and switches safely was great.  I used this skill many times in our home.  The second best part was getting a list of must have tools to be a DIY electrician.
  
  
• Masonry - My key learning in this one is that I shouldn't attempt any big projects in this area.   I did horribly as laying brick.   My only venture in this area is to occasionally repair damaged mortar. 
  
  
• Real Estate - I though being a real estate agent might be a good part time retirement job.  I took a course at a local community college to learn the material to pass the licensing course.   Although the course material was good, I didn't take the test.  I learned that being a part-time agent requires paying a number of fees to keep the job.   It was a money losing proposition unless I sold at least a couple houses a year.  I decided to pass.
  

In addition, I got some useful free education through one post retirement job.

• Tax Professional -  This was actually a part time job that provided education for employees. While the pay was minimum wage plus commission, the real benefit was the tax education I was able to take at no additional cost.  I achieved the highest level tax advisor at the firm which qualified me to handle most tax returns.   I did this for about 5 years before "retiring."    The education and experience I received has helped me immensely in doing my own tax returns and in deal with the IRS and state tax agencies when necessary.

Overall, I've been able to put my post retirement education towards many DIY projects around the house.

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This is not financial, education, tax, nor retirement jobs advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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