Never Retire?

After a heavy news week, a couple of heavy blog posts and a bunch more equity volatility I thought a lighter post would be appropriate. I often try to make the point about finding some sort of work to do in retirement that you love to do and would otherwise do for free.

I found three examples of guys 80 or older do exactly that, getting paid to do something they would do for free. The first is Johnny Pesky who is 92 years old and still an instructor in the Red Sox minor league system.

Next is Don Zimmer who after being Joe Torre's bench coach has been on the Tampa Bay Rays staff for the last few years and still is on the field before every home game.

The last and most actively involved is 88 year old Red Schoendienst, special assistant to the general manager of the Cardinals but also he spends a lot of time evaluating minor league players.

A lot of people are interested in sports so being a bench coach or otherwise involved with professional baseball teams somewhere in the organization would seem to be fun work and probably would pay a couple of hundred thousand for maybe eight months of work, nine if the team goes far into the playoffs.

I've made this joke before but I think the point is valid and there are jobs available in every conceivable interest anyone of us might have. I think I mentioned that my wife's uncle was offered some sort of office work with the Angels that tied in with what he did before retiring.

The pay would have been low, I think he said $10 hour but games would have been free and it was part time. A few hundred bucks a month and all the baseball you want sounds pretty good, especially if the context does not have to be replacing some huge portion of your income. Some of these gigs might have benefits too (not sure if the job with the Angels had benefits or not).

In these types of posts I talk about spending time figuring out how to monetize a hobby (or interest). I'm not sure if coincidentally I've met a lot of people who have done this or if my belief in this concept somehow connects me to a lot of stories like this but the possibilities are infinite. If there is a way to monetize something you have done for years chances are you can figure out how to do that and then make it happen even if it takes a lot of effort.

I would not minimize the seemingly low pay either, or potentially low pay. Aside from the benefits of having something that you love that keeps you busy, a couple living on $3000-$5000 per month (a fine but not opulent lifestyle) who can make $400-$600, or more, per month part time can relieve a decent portion of the burden that might otherwise be placed on the portfolio.