Retirement income and retirement go hand in hand. After all, if you have no income to live on when you’re retired, you won’t enjoy retirement.
Not. At. All.
So, it makes sense to start planning for multiple streams of retirement income before you actually need the money.
Where Does Retirement Income Come From?
While retirement hasn’t always been about “not working”, an article in the Washington Post states that almost 20% of people over 65 are actually still working today.
This is the highest rate of post-retirement working since 1962.
An even higher number of current workers, 79% in fact, expect to keep working after age 65 in order to supplement their retirement income.
However, jobs may not be available to seniors who want to stay in the workforce past 65. This could be because of health problems, age discrimination or personal caregiving needs.
You want to work, because things are getting more expensive.
This is true in everything from health insurance and healthcare, to tuition, food and rent.
And, while some companies may be hiring, the jobs that are being offered aren’t the jobs with benefits and pensions that our parents had.
This means, you’re on your own more than ever when it comes to planning for retirement, and your retirement income.
Three Retirement Income Ideas to Remain Sane and Healthy
When you retire, you want to be able to support yourself, but not at the expense of your health and sanity.
That’s why it’s important to mix not only passive income with a dash of entrepreneurship and social engagement into the mix.
These three characteristics can make for a satisfying, healthy and worry free retirement.
1) Blogging
You’ve spent your entire life working and learning. What interests have you honed over the years that others would benefit from reading about?
Who could you help or connect with?
Building a blog is a simple process. The hard (or challenging) part, is the discipline of writing every day.
But it’s worth it.
Because blogging has a dual purpose of keeping you sane and healthy.
- It helps you clarify your thoughts and express your ideas to others. This helps keep you sharp while providing an outlet for whatever you’re most interested in.
- It can provide a side income. Bloggers can make money in a variety of ways, from online advertising to selling information products. Information products, such as e-books, online courses or exam preparation can provide regular income from visitors to your website as your audience grows.
Of course, some bloggers don’t worry about making money, but many bloggers have discovered the price of freedom in blogging.
They live off this income.
You can find out about how easy it is to start a blog here.
2) Dividend Stocks:
Dividend stocks are risky, like any investment in the stock market. However, I believe getting started with dividend stocks early in life is a great part of a retirement plan.
The primary reason is that you can reduce your risk of loss with dividend stocks AND you can probably find dividend stocks that you are interested in that you can research.
The best part about dividend stocks is that, most of the time, if the stock market falls, the dividends are still distributed.
If you have your stock portfolio set up as a dividend reinvestment plan (aka a “DRIP”), then when the stock market goes down, the DRIP reinvests your dividends in the buying more of your dividend stocks at a lower price. So you’re getting more of your favorite dividend stocks at a lower basis.
Then when the market recovers, you’ll benefit from investing when the price was lower.
Investing in dividend stocks has two benefits that can help keep the money flowing while keeping you sane:
- Dividend stocks can pay you each month, quarter or whenever by direct deposit or a check.
- Dividend stocks are an interesting topic that can keep you sharp by researching.
Dividend stocks come in many forms, which is what makes them interesting. There are dividend stocks that pay out monthly, quarterly, biannually and annually.
Monthly dividend stocks set up on a DRIP will provide a slightly higher return, all things being equal, than any other type of dividend stock. This is because of the magic of compounding.
Even though the monthly dividend will be smaller in pure dollar terms than a quarterly payout, those dollars are reinvested every month, adding up to more through the magic of compound interest.
One of the dividend stocks I’m looking at now is “Next Era Energy”.
3) Selling Stuff Online:
If you’re not working full time, a great side hustle is finding interesting “junk” from yard sales, garage sales, antique and thrift stores and selling it online at a profit.
There is literally billions of dollars of “junk” that people don’t want anymore that others are shopping for online RIGHT NOW.
You may even have a specialty or special hobby or interest that makes you extra qualified to identify items of junk that are really “diamonds in the rough”.
Selling stuff online has two benefits that can help keep you sane and healthy:
- It gets you out of the house and lifting stuff
- It hones your skills with computers, the Internet and online marketing
Get started on Ebay, Etsy or Amazon. In each online market there are literally millions of people looking around for items to buy.
In the case of Etsy, you can get creative.
You could find antique or junk items and then customize them to make them your own designs, increasing the amount you can sell them for.