People may think that side hustles are mainly for millennials, and it’s a good way for them to earn extra income while performing a task that they enjoy or are good at. Check out my post about 12 side hustles to start from home by clicking here.
You’d be surprised to know that baby boomers – adults aged 55 to 73 – are also interested in side jobs to make extra money for fun in addition to their main source of income.
Wonolo, a gig platform, did a study and found out that 1 in 3 baby boomers is doing 3 or more gigs per week on its platform, compared to only 1 in 5 millennials…
According to Cynthia Measom of Yahoo Finance, here are the top side hustles for baby boomers. Indeed, why not earn some supplemental income to achieve your financial goals as your retirement draws near?
Rental Host
Renting out a room or your home for a few days, a week or a whole season, can be a lucrative side hustle, if you don’t mind having random strangers share your living space.
To calculate your earning potential, whether for a room, an apartment or a house, check out the on-line calculators from home rental marketplaces such as Airbnb or VBRO
It’s also possible to rent out your home by the hour, or only for the day. Check platforms such as Peerspace or thisopenspace to see if this is suitable
Want your home to be featured in a movie or TV show? Contact Giggster to register your home as a potential shooting location.
Make sure to check your city’s regulation regarding home rental before taking any step.
Local Tour Guide
Do you live in a popular city or a tourist destination? You could earn a lucrative side business as tour guide especially if you enjoy showing people around and take pride in your place.
To get started, you can contact a tour-booking platform like TourByLocal, or host experiences on Airbnb.
Feeling confident in your skills and don’t want to share your earnings with these platforms? Why not start a tour service on your own.
Start by researching the history, culture, any interesting facts about your city or destination and find a unique angle to differentiate your services from other tours. Perhaps specialize in a field or specific area, for example a street food tour, a vegetarian food tour or a sugar crawl.
Selling your Crafts
Do you have a special skill and enjoy making little gifts for your family and friends? Why not turn this hobby into a side hustle?
To reach more customers, try selling online in addition to in-person events or marketplace.
To sell online, you can join Etsy or Shopify platforms and set up a shop for free (or get a free trial) but be prepared to pay a small fee for any transaction or payment processing. .
Take a Masterclass on how to set-up a shop on Etsy and how to promote it through social media and marketing.
To sell directly to customers, check out the craft fairs or other events in your area that allow personal craft sellers to participate.
Start An Online Craft Business: A Guide For Artists & Makers
Alteration Service
If you’re good at sewing and have a sewing machine, alteration service can be a lucrative home business with low overhead. You can offer free pickup and delivery if you drive, or ask your clients to come to you.
Print up business cards and distribute to bridal shops, dry cleaners, clothing boutiques in your area to refer you to potential customers. Once you establish a clientele, word-of-mouth referral would also help boost your exposure.
Wash-and-Fold Laundry Service
- Pay: $20 per bag of processed laundry
More and more professionals are resorting to outside help for routine and time consuming tasks such as laundry.
To get started, sign up with a service like Laundry Care, that pays around $20 per bag of processed laundry.
If you live in a convenient neighborhood for potential clients to drop off and pick up their laundry from your home, you can consider to launch this side hustle on your own. Check out similar service in your area and charge a competitive price for your wash-and-fold laundry service.
Life Coach
As a baby boomer, you are armed with experience and wisdom and could be a valuable life coach to help people grow personally and professionally.
As a life coach, you would help others identify their goals and take actions to move towards their goals or to achieve their life’s purpose.
There are useful courses that you could take to realize your potential as life coach to inspire and motivate others.
This could be not only lucrative but also a rewarding side business.
Pet Sitting
This is a flexible side hustle as you can host the pet in your home or at the owner’s home, and once you have fed the pets, you have free time to attend to other activities.
To start, you can check platforms like Rover, Fetch and Care.com. Compare the hourly rate, terms and conditions and select the one that works best for your schedule. You can also register as a dog walker which can earn you extra income, while you do some walking exercise.
Professional Friend
- Pay: $10 per hour, according to RentAFriend.com
At first sight, this seems like a low-pay job, and it may seem weird to earn money for being a “friend”. But you may enjoy the companionship or activity. Some people need somebody to accompany them to a concert or social event, or just tag along for an outing, so why not hang out with them and get paid for it?
To get started, sign up with RentAFriend.com
Costumed Characters and Children Parties
- Pay: $175 to $225 per hour, according to Thumbtack
Do you enjoy entertaining kids and have experience with your grandchildren? Consider to run a costumed character service for children’s birthday parties.
If you can offer additional services such as face painting, games, making balloons, or story reading, you can charge a higher fee, as well as transportation charges. This can bring a high hourly income.
Why not invest around $1,500 in a commercial-grade bounce house (which will be more durable than a $500 residential product) and start a rental side hustle. You could charge $85 to $250 per bounce house rental, so you will recuperate your investment very quickly, especially during summer season.
Translator
- Pay: $19.85 per hour
Are you fluent in another language aside English? Why not become a translator, for written or verbal communications?
This is a job you can do from home and you can opt to work as few or as many hours as you want. Sites like Rev pays $1.50 to $3 per audio/video minute depending on the language.
You can also register at One Hour Translation if you are a professional translator.
Rideshare Driver
- Pay: $17.50 per hour, according to Ridester
In your free time, shy not turn your car into extra cash, if it has four doors and five to eight seats and is no older than 2006. Apply to Lyft which will check your driver’s license, driving history and criminal background. Once you are accepted, you can start earning around $17.50 per hour by accepting rides through the Lyft app.
Greeting Card Writer
- Pay: $100 to $300 per accepted submission
Snafu Designs pays $100 for each accepted laugh-out-loud idea that’s clever. So if you’re a witty writer and have a knack to make people laugh or can express feelings in words, this could be a lucrative and fun side hustle.
Blue Mountain Arts, a greeting card, gifts and books retailer, pays $300 for each piece of accepted contemporary prose intended for a greeting card or a product. In this case, you need to express personal experience, thoughts or feelings into words.
Be prepared to expect rejection, but if your idea has been accepted, the payment may take a few months.
Management Consultant
- Pay: $60.08 per hour
You probably have gained a great experience in your field and may help others improve aspects of their businesses. Management consultants consult with companies to improve different aspects of a business, including productivity, management and image. This job typically involves computers knowledge and analytical skills.
If your skills are a good match, it’s a lucrative side hustle which could be flexible to match your own schedule and lifestyle. Check out the available remote management consultant jobs on sites like FlexJobs.
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Hoi An’s famous Vietnamese Banh Mi and special sauce
Wow! So many good ideas for us, baby bloomers! Thanks for sharing.