What a side income looks like at 62

People ask me what side income actually looks like after 60, and I’ve noticed they’re not asking for a number. They’re asking for a picture. What does the week look like? What does the person do on a Thursday?

So here are three pictures. I need to say this plainly before I start: these are illustrations. Composites built from patterns I’ve seen among readers. They are not testimonials, not real individuals, and not promises of what you’d earn. The ranges are realistic. Your results would be your own.

Illustration one: the retired teacher

Call her Linda. Sixty-two, taught fourth grade for 31 years, retired with a pension that covers the basics and not much more.

Hours per week: About eight, mostly late afternoons.

What she does: Tutors reading and math for kids in third through sixth grade. Started with two families from church. Now has six regulars, mostly at her own kitchen table, two over video for grandkids of friends who moved to Arizona.

What it pays: $35 to $50 an hour in her area, so somewhere between $1,100 and $1,600 a month during the school year, less in summer. She doesn’t advertise. Parents find her through other parents.

What surprised her: Two things. The first was that she had to set a rate and say it out loud, and she undercharged for a year because it felt rude to ask for what she was worth. The second was quarterly estimated taxes, which nobody warned her about. She found out in April and it stung. She keeps a shoebox for receipts now and a simple spreadsheet, and she bought a used whiteboard she writes off.

Illustration two: the former contractor

Call him Ray. Sixty-four, ran a small remodeling crew for 25 years until his back said no more. Sold the trucks. Kept the tools.

Hours per week: Ten to twelve, and he’s strict about it.

What he does: Small repairs, the kind no contractor wants: a sticking door, a dripping faucet, a wobbly deck rail, hanging a ceiling fan. Mostly for people his age who don’t have a son-in-law nearby. And walkthroughs for people about to buy a house, an hour of looking with an experienced eye before they sign.

What it pays: Small repairs at $60 to $85 an hour, walkthroughs at a flat $150. A typical month lands somewhere between $1,500 and $2,400. Some months he turns people down because he doesn’t want the hours.

What surprised him: How much of it is trust and how little is skill. What people pay for is a man they trust in their house. The other surprise was liability insurance. A basic handyman policy ran him about $50 a month, and the first homeowner who asked for proof of insurance was the one who convinced him he should have it.

Illustration three: the widow who likes Facebook groups

Call her Donna. Sixty-one, lost her husband three years ago, and found that the thing that pulled her out of the quiet was a few online groups: one for women over 55 in her state, one for people managing arthritis, one for her town.

Hours per week: Three or four, in the evenings, from the couch.

What she does: She answers questions. She’s the one who replies when somebody posts about their knees or their blood pressure or their mother’s eyes. Somewhere along the way she became a Fixity Ambassador, which gave her a tracked link to a set of free health reports. Now when somebody asks about joints, she passes along the joint report. Nobody pays for the report. If one of those readers later buys something from Fixity, she earns half the profit on it, and keeps earning on that reader for as long as they stay a reader.

What it pays: This one is the slowest to start and has the widest range. Her first few months, almost nothing: a check in the $30s, then one around $80. By the end of the first year her checks were landing between $200 and $600 when they came, because the readers she’d introduced in the spring were still credited to her in the fall. Some were lower. Her annual fee for the program was under $100.

What surprised her: That the thing she was already doing for free, helping people in groups, was the whole thing. She didn’t have to change. And that the checks lagged by a couple of months because of a 45-day hold, so the slow start wasn’t failure, it was the calendar. The other surprise: a W-9 form showed up before her first check, and she almost didn’t fill it out because she thought it meant she owed something. It doesn’t. It’s just the form that lets a company report what it paid you.

What the three have in common

• None of them started from scratch. Each one turned a thing she or he already was, a teacher, a tradesman, a helper, into income.
• None of them put money up front beyond a whiteboard, an insurance policy, and a modest annual fee.
• All three were surprised by taxes and records, not by the income itself.
• All three keep the hours small on purpose. At 62 the goal is not to rebuild a career. It is to add a cushion and keep the days your own.

Again: Linda, Ray, and Donna are illustrations. If you see yourself in one of them, that’s the point. The ranges are what I believe a reasonable person could land in. Where you land depends on the hours, the people around you, and a little luck. Nobody can promise more than that, and I won’t.