Retirement Hobbies
The wisest mind has something yet to learn. ~ George Santayana (1863 – 1952
Inspiring retirement hobby ideas from our readers!
- Flower pressing
By Sandra
Make greeting cards and pictures. It keeps you in touch with nature and it’s creative and relaxing. I made quite a bit on the side too and have even written an ebook telling exactly how I do it. It’s a totally absorbing occupation and is a wonderfully creative outlet. You can see my website, Flower Pressing Secrets.
- Showing dogs
By Nancy
We stay active in senior years through dog showing. We want to see and visit with friends. And we want purpose. What better way than having loved companions, our beautiful dogs, enjoy the trip, too.
- Playing the piano
By Wendy
The fastest growing population of piano students is actually adults. There was just an article in the St. Pete Times about a 90 year old man who just started playing the piano. It completely changed his life and his attitude.
- Model boat building
By JP
It’s fun and keeps me busy for hours most days. The materials are fairly cheap to buy or aquire, if you’re a good scavenger, and the rewards are great. I get most of my building materials from old furniture and only buy the minimum of balsa, electric accessories, etc for the action models. There are lots of clubs for model boat building and/or boating (on the water). The clubs are available on the net by searching for ‘model boat club’ or ‘model yacht club’ etc. Once you start to gain skills and produce nice work, you’ll never look back.
- Rubber stamping
By Joan
It’s awesome! I make cards, give classes in it, make gifts like tile coasters, notebooks and matching pens, pins you wear, picture frames, stamped plates, gift bags and more. Anything that doesn’t move you can stamp. ~ Joan
- Story telling
I do storytelling for adults and children and teach a course called Becoming YOUR Story in Savannah, GA.
- Research business
I will search for anything, from used books to health info to crusies, anything a person might need or want I’ll search it out for them, get a cost, pictures if possible, and put the two parties together, for a small fee.
- Handwriting analysis
My own personal way of adding meaning to retirement involves graphology or handwriting analysis. It’s an amazing learning experience. Not only does it provide mental stimulation but it also enriches one’s life with new ideas and insights, gives insight into personalities, and is useful in areas such as personnel selection, teaching, compatibility testing and vocational guidance. Visit Graphic Insight for more information.
Other ideas from our readers:
- Bird feeding
- Amateur radio (talking to others around the world)
- Short-wave radio (listening to people and news from around the world)
- Photography (both 35mm and digital)
- Stamp collection (mine is Vatican City and Biblical)
- Knitting and crocheting
- Painting
- Woodworking
- Writing
- Take a Bible course
- Take a course at a local college
- Volunteer
- Overseas missions work
- Gardening
- Sewing
- Card making
- Cake decorating
- Drawing
- Water-color painting
- Kite flying
- Jewelry making – beads etc.
- Letter and poem writing
- Composing songs
- Playing keyboard for nursing/retirement homes
- Do-it-yourself home improvement projects
- Cycling
- Pen pal correspondence
- 50+ activities & programs at sports centers: table tennis, badminton, swimming, etc.
- Guitar lessons
- Astronomy & geology
What a good list. People are always looking for new interesting things that they have not thought about. I like the “story telling” spot where that person is teaching a course. Cool. Then on the more serious site, the research business idea, to help others gather the information that they require seems quite interesting. Hmmm–