15 Low Stress Jobs After Retirement for 50 Yrs & Older [2024]

Low-stress jobs for retirees are essential for meaning extra income in old age. Many retirees also look for a way to earn money for intellectual fulfillment.  

Jobs after retirement can also help you stay physically active to wade off sedentary lifestyle diseases. 

Also, apart from the extra money, you may want a fun job that nurtures your hobbies during your retirement years. 

Luckily, there are many great low-stress jobs for retirees who love to work. The target should be gigs that offer a quiet environment, flexible hours, and fair pay.

Are you interested in the perfect job for post-retirement? Have your pick of the best low stress jobs after retirement:

Flexible Low-Stress Jobs After Retirement

It makes sense that you want to work part-time in retirement. The flexibility ensures that you have enough free time for other activities such as spending time with family. Such gigs to make some extra money in your free time include:

1. Online Tutor

Pay Scale: $17 – $19 per hour

Source: ZipRecruiter

This is a perfect gig for a retiree with a teacher, educator, lecturer, professor, or trainer background. You basically share your knowledge with students online as an at-home tutor.

Retirees may choose to work through remote tutor platforms like Tutor.com and Preply.com. You can also work stress-free on a personal website where you create a network of paying students.

ZipRecruiter reports an average salary of USD 19/hr for remote tutors. Preply on the other hand records top tutors making $38.50 to $50 an hour. 

Offer Private Tutoring on Preply

2. Proofreader

Pay Scale: $13.70 – $43.99 per hour

You can enjoy flexible hours working as a proofreader for book publishers. The skill also sells well amongst newsrooms and self-publishing authors on the likes of Amazon Kindle.

Proofreading is a great option for retirees with accreditation in the English language. The gig can be done remotely, making it an excellent way to make money from home.

Retiree’s Proofreading Success Story

Meet Nancy, a former academic advisor at Widener University. After she retired from her position, she decided to become a remote proofreader. 

This was a perfect option since she had a background as an editor at Rodale Press.

She had also proofread a book at Cornell University… back in the ’70s.

That’s a long time ago!!! But that didn’t stop her.

She enrolled in Caitlin Pyle’s Proofreading course to refresh her proofreading skills.

Now in her 70s, Nancy is making a good income juggling between proofreading, research, and data entry gigs. 

Read Nancy’s Journey into Proofreading here

Register for Caitlin Pyle’s Proofreading Course. 

3. Telehealth Practitioner

Pay Scale: $6.73 – $153.85 per hour 

Amongst the many advantages of internet-based gigs, is that you can continue in your lifelong career from home. Such are the opportunities that come with telemedicine practice.

It goes without saying that the gig is for people who worked in the medical field after retirement. It allows health medical practitioners to continue working and making money via video conference. 

The broad telehealth industry employs nurses, doctors, dieticians, and therapists. Depending on your expertise, this can be a high-paying job with some telemedical workers making as much as $320k per year.

4. Virtual Assistant (VA)

Pay Scale: $11.53 – $33.89 per hour

Many businesses may not afford full-time administrative assistants. This offers a way for retirees to work part-time as VAs. 

VAs get paid by the number of hours, with highly skilled workers making $30/hr+. The job involves assisting customers over the phone.

Stellar communication skills are a major requirement of the job. Knowledge of CRM software such as HubSpot and Zendesk will also make you a valued VA.

How To Make Money as a Virtual Assistant

Fun Low Stress Jobs after Retirement

Wondering what is the happiest least stressful job? For a retiree, the answer is simple; find a fun job that allows you to work the hours you want. It should also be a gig that allows social interaction to avoid boredom. Below are such gigs:

5. Freelance Pet Sitter

Pay Scale: $11.54 – $20.67 per hour

Source: Google Play // Rover

If you were an animal shelter worker, continuing to work with animals can be a fun way to spend retirement. 

While a pet sitter gig does not offer social interaction, time with animals can be just as therapeutic. What’s more, working with animals as a pet sitter lets you stay active without much exhaustion. 

Pet sitting involves providing companionship, feeding, and monitoring pets. For extra cash, pet sitting can also pay you for overnight stays and grooming services.

If you are still energetic, you can also offer dog walker services to earn extra money. Dog walking also lets you meet other pet lovers at parks.

You can get pet-sitting jobs by registering on sites like Rover.com and Care.com. 

Register as a Dog Walker on Rover

6. Tour Guide

Pay Scale: $12.47 – $28.18 per hour 

A tour guide job could be a perfect opportunity for retirees who love to spend time on the road.

The job entails imparting knowledge to tourists about landmarks, museums, national parks, and cultural centers.

A good starting point is offering local tours to schools before you move to out-of-town visitors. Notably, to mean retirement income as a tour guide, you need to be a history buff.

Success Story: Retiree Tour Guides

Bill and Jenni Holmes found a great way to earn while living their retirement dream as nomads. 

Instead of using up their retirement savings on the nomad life, they went for jobs as tour bus drivers.

Bill used to work as a paramedic while Jenni was a nurse. The Australian couple retired early and decided to share their love of traveling with others. 

Their tour job has them traveling 7 months a year. The gig pays for their food, accommodation, and other needs. So good is the retirement job that they rented out their house for some extra spending money.

What’s more, tourism workers create a dynamic social group, a great help to an older couple. Life on the road has been fulfilling enough to see Bill going strong even after Jenni passed away. 

Read the Success Story of Retired Grey Nomads Here

7. Freelance Writer

Pay Scale: $7.45 – $32.93 per hour

This is an easy retirement job that can help raise your standard of living as a retiree.

First off, remote writing jobs require a small budget to start. With just a computer and internet connection, you can start freelance writing right from home.

Secondly, there is serious money to be made with top writers making $50+ an hour. 

Thirdly, you can write about anything including your earlier job or family life. You can even write about a passion project during retirement.

Lastly, and most importantly, you don’t have to work for anyone as a writer; you can simply start a blog and monetize it for supplemental income.

To get started as a remote writer you can find entry gigs on freelance platforms like Upwork and FlexJobs. 

Least Stressful Retirement Jobs

Depending on your energy, tastes, and health, you may prefer the least stressful jobs. To achieve this kind of freedom might call for dipping into your nest egg or opting for low-paying gigs. 

Nevertheless, your skills might just land you a great job without much time or capital input. Below is an example of such easy jobs:

8. Paid Focus Group Participant

Pay Scale: $13.88 – $21.47 per hour

Retirees can make extra money on the side by sharing opinions about various products and services.

This is a retiree job for someone who is good with words and loves to debate. Most focus groups take place at conference centers and online rooms.

As such, you get to meet new people. The best part is that when discussing upcoming products you get free samples.

You can also take part in online surveys to earn free gift cards. In most cases, the job doesn’t require academic qualifications, making it a great job for all retirees. 

Best Paid Survey Sites in 2024

9. House Sitter

Pay Scale: $11.06 – $22.84 per hour

If you are asking “What is the best job for retired person?“, I recommend you try house sitting. Yes, the job is as simple as it sounds, just look after someone’s house and get paid.

Depending on the person, the job may involve watering plants and signing for packages.

Do you love animals? House sitters can also be tasked with looking after pets for extra cash.

It’s worth noting that this is a job best for introverts. The reason is that social interaction for sitters is limited to animals and TV or the internet. 

10. Blogging

Pay Scale: $16.83 – $60.34 per hour

Starting a blog involves lots of time commitment, with time though the returns can be substantial. 

However, you can outsource most of the work once your blog attracts more traffic and revenue. Basically, a successful blog can run itself leaving you free to pursue a passion project.

Bloggers earn money from many streams including paid adverts, product sales, and paid memberships. 

Success Story: Tanja & Mark ‘FIRE’ Bloggers

What if I told you blogging can be an excellent way to retire early? 

That’s exactly what Tanja and Mark did at ages 38 and 41. The duo blogs about the ‘Financial Independence, Retire Early” niche.

Tanja Hester is a former political communications strategist, in a well-paying position. The money from her pre-retirement career could however not satisfy her need for a great work-life balance.

The same goes for Mark Bunge, a former pollster.

With hobbies like skiing, backpacking, biking, and climbing, the couple decided to get out of the 9 to 5 early.

Through the “Our Next Life” blog, the couple teaches others how to attain financial independence post-retirement.

The blog is highly successful and is featured on Forbes and The New York Times, amongst other major publications.

It has also helped Tanja author and sell books on the FIRE life.

Read More About Tanja & Mark Here

Easy AI Jobs for a Retiree

Ongoing advancements in AI have created an entirely new category of low-stress jobs after retirement. The best part is that the gig economy makes it easy to work from wherever you are on a fixed or hourly basis. 

Artificial intelligence can also be applied in most industries with minimal technical knowledge. Some of the best easy online AI side hustles include:

11. AI Video Creator

Pay Scale: $22.85 – $27.52 per hour

As we stated earlier, AI jobs are some of the most stress-free jobs. Video creation is one such job with Artificial Intelligence tools like Pictory and Seamless opening the floor to everyone.

These are video generator tools that help you improve existing videos and create new clips.

Some AI video jobs might include requirements like script writing that can also be done using AI. The skill involves working for blogs, brands, and video bloggers to create videos.

This is a retiree job that can also have you working for AI developers to improve machine learning. 

The best part is that the job requires just computer literacy, a few paid subscriptions, and your imagination!

Learn AI Video Production on Udemy Today

12. AI for Graphic Design

Average Pay: $12.74 – $43.03 per hour

Source: Canva 

The work involves creating graphics such as logos and layouts. The art can be used on ads and visuals or websites, books, and packaging. 

AI applications on platforms such as Canva and Adobe open, the job to anyone with a creative mind. 

For example, with Canva’s Magic Design you can turn text into captivating visual designs. The software also comes with music and video features plus easy editing, to foster a broader creative process.  

13. Create Courses Using AI

Average Pay: $10 or more per course

You can teach others your pre-retirement skills and trade through online courses. This can be through eBooks or subscription content.

AI can help generate ideas, create copy, and market. Your course can teach anything including plumbing, cutting hair, bookkeeping, knitting, and making apps.

Do you have anything to teach? Try the AcademyOcean AI that helps initiate, customize, and enrich course content. 

The price for your course depends on its difficulty, scope, and marketability. Easy and short courses can earn you $10, while difficult ones can fetch $500+ per download.

14. Make AI Chatbots

Average Pay: $0 – $10,000 per month

AI can help you create Chatbots fast if you have a coding background. This is a marketable skill since the bots are used across many areas of business. 

You can also market your AI-powered chatbots to institutions for internal communication between workers. The product is also in high demand for customer service interactions.

The good news is that, with a unique bot, you can make passive income in your retirement. This is because the software is usually sold as a monthly service.

Basically, a small business will pay up to $500 per month for a chatbot. Midlevel and big enterprises can pay $5,000+ per month with product support as part of the deal.

15. Create Your Own AI

Average Pay: No limit

AI is still in its infancy and there are yet unimagined possibilities of what it can do. 

You just need to consider a market need and use generative AI to find AI-centered applications. What’s more, depending on your AI application, there are no limits to how much you can earn. 

The innovation can also involve using AI to explore existing AI models for improvements. Popular tools for this technology include Open AI’s API and Adobe Firefly.

Services that continue to attract new AI apps include vision, speech, image, and document.

FAQs 

1. What Job Is the Least Stressful and Pays the Most?

There is no one-size-fits-all when deciding on the highest paying least stressful retiree job. The reason is that while one teacher might find an online substitute teacher job least stressful, another might prefer a food delivery driver job in retirement. That said, online jobs such as freelancing writing, and blogging are common preferences for least stressful jobs for retirees. 

2. What Is the Best Career to Retire From?

The career with the best retirement is a job that offers pension benefits. Such careers include teachers, government employees, police and military officers, and registered nurses. The upside is that you can combine your pension and employment benefits to get capital for a post-retirement business.

3. How to Make $50,000 Last in Retirement?

For your money to last in retirement, it comes down to your financial skills and preparedness. Chiefly, you need to budget and stick to the spending plan. In addition, it helps to delay claiming your social security benefits until you have a solid retirement plan. Finally, consider setting up a passive income investment. 

4. How to Make $1,000 a Month In Retirement?

You can make $1k per month by combining jobs like a personal shopper, nanny, or babysitter, and blogging. Through the guidance of a financial advisor, you can also look into high-paying jobs such as becoming a real estate agent.

Remember: To ensure you retire with $1k per month without any work, the rule is to save at least $240k before retirement.