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Early Retirement Extreme Forums » Money Questions

1. 

   LiquidSapphire
   

   Master
   Joined: Jul '11
   Posts: 436

   I thought it'd be fun to create a list of jobs that people loved, enjoyed, or had fun with throughout their lives. Could be a good source of information for people to look into when they are entertaining Semi-retirement or even just something to do when they are FI.

   I was a tour guide in a cave as a teenager. It was great; I spent a lot of time hanging around with other tour guides waiting for tourists to show up, and the tourists were generally nice people who asked basic questions. Very carefree and low stress. Also low pay, I made minimum wage with a rare tip.

   I was also a part time tutor for a tutoring franchise; you taught their curriculum to the kids that came in. It was pretty easy, although some of the kids, on their bad days, were handfuls, but the sessions were only 1 hour long per kid, you had 2-3 kids per hour. It was very part time, I think the most you could work was 2 3-hour shifts each day in the summer, it paid something like $10-12 an hour.

   Also here is a CBS article about 8 jobs that most people think would be fun, but really probably aren't:
   http://www.cbsnews.com/8334-505125_162-57225050/8-fun-jobs-that-will-destroy-you/

   They are:
   Advertising Account Executive
   Public Relations Officer
   Commercial Airline Pilot
   Architect
   Senior Executive
   Newscaster
   Photojournalist
   Stockbroker

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   JasonR
   

   Master
   Joined: Feb '11
   Posts: 336

   Cool. I was just in Luray Caverns with a disaffected teen as a tour guide.

   Stripper - best job ever. I stripped at a nursery. Another way I could have phrased that is: I worked at a plant nursery stripping leaves off pachysandra plants for potting in flats. Summer job in high school. Mindless work (I think I'm the only INTJ that likes repetitive mindless work) and hanging out with friends. It was piece work so whenever you were done with your pile of plants...you could leave, or do more and shoot the breeze. Lazy, easy.

   Web Designer - Overall pretty nice. Work from home, do video game related stuff. Some autonomy. Clients are still rough, but they pay more.

   Military - not that much fun. Also, is every deployment to somewhere miserable? Isn't trouble brewing in Hawaii?

   Tomato picker / Tobacco Spearer - opposite of best job ever.

   Foundry - Ha, forgot about this job. This was the worst ever. Bull-puller. 400 lb wheelbarrow with 900° iron sloshing in it and you have to drag it to the mold makers before it cools to 800° and gets viscous. Then dump the slag and go back to the furnace to fill up and repeat. The smell of iron got in your skin, didn't wash out. Co-workers were mostly in work-release programs.

   So if I need money in retirement I'm going back to the nursery.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Ralphy
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 192

   I'm sure it's not for everybody, but I still think pizza delivery is a fun part-time gig.

   Pros - lots of free food, semi-independent (lots of time away from store), majority of income paid in cash, low stress

   Cons - late nights, dealing with drunk people, being outside in bad weather, menial tasks like dishes/cleaning

   ...............

   I tutored Econ 101 and 102 through the University student center for a semester back in college, and I hated it. Most of the kids had their fees paid or subsidized by someone else, and had little interest in being there. It basically amounted to baby-sitting for about minimum wage.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   Spartan_Warrior
   

   Master
   Joined: Dec '11
   Posts: 512

   I've never had a job I would consider fun, unfortunately, but the closest was probably being a library page. The work itself is menial, pay generally minimum wage, but at least you're surrounded by books, and in my case the supervision was minimal enough that I could take a break from shelving and do my own thing (reading/writing) at least some of the time. Once you get up to manning the checkout desk, you have some extra "benefits", like the ability to erase overdue fees from any account...

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   chenda
   

   Master
   Joined: Jun '11
   Posts: 385

   I've never had a fun job either, though I did some receptionist work where I had little to do all day except sit on the front desk, which meant I could spend most of the day reading.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   Fiddle
   

   Novice
   Joined: Aug '11
   Posts: 19

   After i graduated from University I worked as a Street Fundraiser on behalf of charities in city centres across the UK.

   Maybe not the 1st choice for an introvert, but i learned how to be an extrovert while in uniform and the benefits where numerous: Work with energetic charity minded people, talk to random interesting people in the public, be outside, travel the UK and N.Ireland with transport and accomodation paid for by the agency, have as much unpaid leave as i liked (becasue a tired demotivated fundraiser is unproductive and can bring the team down around them) and the pay was bonused so the more people i signed up to the cause the more i got paid.

   The only problem with the work is burnout. Burnout from receiving rejection, for every 10 people asked to stop and talk 1 will and for every 1 person who is interesting and enjoyable to talk too there are more who arent. Also living with high energy extroverts 24/7 becomes tiring too. Other than that, great work.

   This is one option i have in the 'maybe maybe' category once i achieve semi ere.

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   DividendGuy
   

   Master
   Joined: Dec '10
   Posts: 423

   @Ralphy,

   Just wondering, what kind of money is there in part-time pizza delivery? I always thought it'd be fun to do that. I love pizza, I don't like waking up early and I like driving. The only problem is trying to figure out what you're "actually" making after wear and tear on your car and gas is figured in.

   I've always thought you can pretty much count on about $9/hr after all expenses are figured. Is that accurate?

   It seems like a fun semi-ERE job.

   Thanks!

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. 

   LonerMatt
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Sep '11
   Posts: 173

   Tutoring and teaching I find incredibly rewarding and fun.

   Posted 1 year ago #
9. 

   jennypenny
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '11
   Posts: 1,386

   I used to work at the Historical Society. The job could be boring, but sometimes I got to see some of the treasures they had. It was cool seeing a draft of the Constitution complete with scratch outs and rewrites in the margins (all marked so you knew if it was Jefferson suggesting the change or whomever). It was interesting to see "God" in, then out, then in.

   Posted 1 year ago #
10. 

    Debbie M
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Aug '10
    Posts: 55

    My best job was as an assistant camp counselor at an overnight Girl Scout camp in the woods where canoeing was the exciting thing you do. They taught us canoeing, tie dying and other fun stuff the first week.

    Then we had new kids every week or two--it's great when your priorities are: #1 - safety and #2 - fun. So, I hated enforcing the no-running rule (and had to make sure no one was looking when I was running), but otherwise it was great. But we mostly never had to make people do things they didn't want to do.

    It was challenging to find something for everyone to do if they were in charge of cooking or firebuilding, but I did it. Once when my group was in charge of cleaning latrines, they liked it so much that they said they always wanted that for their chore. I told them they could probably talk the other groups into letting them. It was fun to say things like, "Don't worry; we don't lower you down into the latrine--we just sponge off the outside of it, sweep and mop the floors, and clean the sink.

    The other three summers I worked there were not as fun. It was more fun learning the best way to do things the first summer. Like "hill" (nap time), I decided the best way to was to tell everyone to pick a tent, any tent, and stay there the whole time. Do anything you want, but be quiet enough that if someone wanted to sleep, they could. Most of the good ideas were not mine--I got to learn them the easy way.

    Also, I got to take a class in lifesaving, which was a lovely break from the kiddos.

    The pay, well. We got a very small amount of money, especially when you consider that we got 3 hours off each day, were on call overnight, and worked all the other hours of the day. Plus we got room and board. Oh, I gained so much weight. Some of it was muscle though.

    And of course the job's no good if you don't want to be away from home all summer!

    **

    I got to be a building monitor in college, which let me study, which was nice. I wouldn't call that a fun job, though.

    **

    And I've had a few jobs where I got to explain to people afraid of math how to do the math they needed to do for their jobs. I love doing that. And they get so appreciative. Even worshipful.

    Posted 1 year ago #
11. 

    aussierogue
    

    Master
    Joined: Nov '11
    Posts: 376

    greatest job in the word is a "linesman" at a Port Facility.

    In Australia these guys sit in a hut all day and read magazines and do weights. Then when a ship either comes or goes the bell rings they jump in a Tarago drive to the wharf and help untie/tie the ropes (lines) of the ship connecting to the wharf.

    They need to be on call and do shift work but gee its an easy 140k per year!

    Patient transport (one below ambulance officer) looks pretty cool too. Drive people back and forth between hospitals, rehabs, homes etc..

    A cheufeur to execs is also cool i would imagine. I used to hire a guy every time i arrived back in oz who wld pick me up from the airport and take me to the office or home. Paid a small premium, He had many clients all word of mouth - nice car, civilised conversations...not a bad gig.

    Posted 1 year ago #
12. 

    C40
    

    Master
    Joined: Feb '11
    Posts: 598

    I worked at a Chevy dealership one summer about 10 years ago. $10 per hour at the time. This job was pretty fun, and extremely easy. My job was called a "lot technician". I washed cars, reorganized how the cars were parked at times, and sometimes drove cars to/from a warehouse or to go put gas in them. We had 20-30% of the day to hang out and shoot the breeze. The closest thing to stress was when we had 2-3 cars waiting to be washed (but there was not really any need to hurry)... or not being able to find keys for a car (but we could just go have the parts guy make us one). It's a particularly good job for someone who likes cars. I got to drive all kinds of different cars. Took a new convertible 'Vette out for a couple hours one day on my last week of work.

    Posted 1 year ago #
13. 

    Ralphy
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 192

    @DividendGuy -

    Really depends on where you work. I've talked to some guys who worked at national chains (Papa John's, Pizza Hut, etc) that probably netted about what you guessed. I usually make a bit more than that.

    Wherever you work, you usually have three forms of income -
    - wages
    - tips
    - some form of vehicle compensation

    I get a paycheck for minimum wage ($7.25/hr), and I take home my tips in cash (usually $8-10/hr). Keep in mind, I usually only work weekends, where there's generally a lot more business, so my hourly tip income is higher than someone working during the week.

    Vehicle compensation varies between stores. Some pay you a percentage of your order totals. I get paid a flat $1 per delivery, which last year worked out to $0.36/mile. My rough estimate is that it costs me about $0.30/mile to drive my car (1999 Chevy Prizm), so I usually consider vehicle comp and vehicle expenses a wash. After each shift I take that $1/deliver comp and put it in a little box, then pay car expenses with that cash.

    I think it's a great job for part-time income. I can usually cover my monthly minimum expenses with 3 Saturday night shifts per month. Right now I'm about 30% toward my target ERE nest egg; sometimes it's tempting to walk away from my day job with what I have saved so far and just semi-ERE and deliver pizza on Friday and Saturday.

    Posted 1 year ago #
14. 

    mikeBOS
    

    Master
    Joined: Nov '10
    Posts: 556

    I was a marionette puppeteer for a while. We did kids-geared fairy tales during the day and artsy fartsy and/or crude humor stuff at night for the adults. That was kind of fun. Kind of like being an actor but without all the stage fright. And lots of down time between shows to talk with other interesting people who all had their own artsy side projects going on.

    Posted 1 year ago #
15. 

    Chad
    

    Expert
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 1,051

    For two summers during college a buddy and I worked for my small town's Recreation Department. I worked 35 hours a week and ran all the recreation sports leagues (baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, 5k's, bike race, etc.) and had a team in every one. We also ran a 2-3 hour playground time for little kids 3 days a week, which was actually fairly fun...kids are great in small doses. We had little if any supervision and the only thing that sucked even a little was we had to mow 2-3 ballfields a week. Basically, just my buddy and I playing sports all day.

    @Debbie M
    No running at camp for little kids? And, we wonder why this country is fat.

    Posted 1 year ago #
16. 

    ffj
    

    Master
    Joined: Aug '10
    Posts: 363

    @JasonR
    Funny as ever, what? you don't like getting shot at in the shitholes of the world?

    @Debbie M

    I spent a summer as a camp counselor at a Christian Camp with the underlying puchline that I was not a Christian, at least how they were defining it. We would take in groups of church kids and do charitable work like fix up poor peoples homes and the like. Worked my ass off for very little pay. I had a great time though especially once everybody (the other counselors) dropped their church faces and let themselves be normal. I had a few though that insisted on giving me the "talk", but that is usually just entertainment for me, so no big deal. Very entertaining summer.

    Posted 1 year ago #
17. 

    palmera
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Aug '11
    Posts: 270

    I am/was the first 2 jobs on that this.

    Had I known it was so terrible, I would have just sucked it up and gone into accounting/banking making 50 - 200% more in salary then ERE'd.

    Sigh.

    Posted 1 year ago #
18. 

    Jan in MN
    

    Novice
    Joined: Sep '11
    Posts: 5

    Summer park ranger - lots of exercise, fun people
    Ran a summer reading program for kids at the local library

    Posted 1 year ago #
19. 

    aussierogue
    

    Master
    Joined: Nov '11
    Posts: 376

    I actually just got a job (today)

    15 hours per week teaching a certificate in business to international Students here in melbourne. 39 bucks per hour. Ill work 2 mights 5-10 pm and one afternoon 12 till 5 pm.

    15 18-24 year olds from brazil, pakistan, india, England and Thailand. These guys are in Australia and generally take these courses in order to extend their visas. So many dont actually turn up to class...hehe....should be interesting.

    Other good thing is campus is a 5 km (15 minute) bike ride from home.

    In order to teach these guys i needed to get a qualification that took 6 mos and cost 1,500 bucks. did that 2 years ago online.

    All good ere i reckon. lets hope it turn out ok...always need luck!

    cheers
    aussie

    Posted 1 year ago #
20. 

    LonerMatt
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Sep '11
    Posts: 173

    Didn't know you were in Melbourne, for some reason I always though you were a Sydney-sider.

    Posted 1 year ago #
21. 

    mikenotspam
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Oct '11
    Posts: 55

    My personal one is not accessible by most, and also can be somewhat stressful depending on the situation, but that stress is largely alleviated with time and experience. So, playing piano. I can't wait till I'm ERE or semi-ERE to just take the time to enjoy it while making decent money for it, without the nonsense business side of things consuming your life.

    Posted 1 year ago #
22. 

    FreeUrChains
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Oct '11
    Posts: 50

    I use to Sell TV's and Computers at Circuit City.

    Cons: The pressure to Have to "Sell" things for a monthly quota and no commissions like back in the 90's and 80's.
    Had to change the Price Tags weekly, or follow CEO orders from somewhere in NYC, like right justifying tag prices, then center justifiying, then right justifing again.
    Lots of Theft even from Store Managers.
    Avoided the Horrific Holiday Season as best as I could. 18 hour shifts on black friday with killer consumers, etc.
    Customers vary on moods, negotiating forcefulness (EREs lol), and some just came in for stress release i guess demanding that a clay tablet was sold to them.

    Pros: Discounts, "Training" on products where the companies would then give you big discounts.
    $8.50-$10/hr was a pretty good wage for standing around all day talking with people occasionally.
    You get to watch almost any G-PG-13 Movie as many times as you want to.
    Talking with other Tech Savy Coworkers.
    Got to help people learn about electronics and help them buy things, though it goes against all my EREs knowledge nowadays.
    All Digital Media was shared with all coworkers. Talking Terabytes here..
    Made some extra cash selling $10 + FS + NT, M$ New xbox games I received from doing M$'s Training programs for $55 to Gamestop.
    Got occasional tips from customers with big wallets or big debts.

    Posted 1 year ago #
23. 

    BennKar
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Dec '10
    Posts: 147

    I once was able to work for a week at the local fair. I got out of school for the week (I was in high school), worked at a dime pitch booth (get your dime in a glass and you keep the glass - we keep the dime!). Weather was great, had a blast going around the fair in my off hours, and made well above minimum wage (back in the 70's), and the owner was nice. I suspect that job would wear on you if you did it for long, but for one week it was great.

    Posted 1 year ago #
24. 

    aussierogue
    

    Master
    Joined: Nov '11
    Posts: 376

    @lonermat

    yep a inner North boy. You from Melbourne?

    Posted 1 year ago #
25. 

    LonerMatt
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Sep '11
    Posts: 173

    Yeah, from inner-West.

    Moving to Mildura on Tuesday though. So not Melbournian for much longer.

    Posted 1 year ago #
26. 

    aussierogue
    

    Master
    Joined: Nov '11
    Posts: 376

    Mildura wow. Wifes extended family from Mildura. Nice place but a long drive...

    we head up there once every few years..

    Posted 1 year ago #
27. 

    LonerMatt
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Sep '11
    Posts: 173

    Just got a job teaching there, felt like a move, lower cost of living, didn't want to live in Melbourne my whole life, get some nice advantages.

    I'm not a big fan of heat though.

    :(

    Posted 1 year ago #
28. 

    EristheUnorganized
    

    Novice
    Joined: Jan '12
    Posts: 4

    I worked at a PC recycler for a long time. When we got used computers in, I would test them out and reinstall all the software. We sold them as complete systems. A really fun job, and had the perk of being socially responsible. Didn't pay much of anything though.

    Posted 1 year ago #
29. 

    dotdot
    

    Novice
    Joined: Oct '11
    Posts: 15

    My favorite job is probably one that doesn't exist anymore:

    Video store clerk (at an independent store)

    Watched movies all day, free rentals, movies/home theater equipment at cost.

    Posted 1 year ago #
30. 

    akratic
    

    Master
    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 482

    I think freelance programming is fun. You get to solve a well-defined engineering problem, without any of the hassle of maintenance or meetings or tracking down bugs in other people's code.

    The sales and invoicing part of freelancing is no fun though, but I'll probably always do small projects for people in my network. Building little iPhone apps, websites, etc.

    Posted 1 year ago #
31. 

    dot_com_vet
    

    Master
    Joined: Jan '11
    Posts: 392

    Sysadmin at a .com. :-) 35 hour work weeks, inhouse chef, and lots of cool tech to learn.

    Downside: Instead of getting rich, the entire local market crashed, under $20k in savings, had to move, and start all over.

    Posted 1 year ago #
32. 

    beav80
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Jul '11
    Posts: 61

    A bunch. Training at a bootcamp, landscaping, working with developmentally disabled adults (this is a lot of fun).

    Posted 1 year ago #
33. 

    teewonk
    

    Apprentice
    Joined: Jan '11
    Posts: 94

    Science museum intern - fun, easy, diverse tasks

    Tree nursery worker - good to be outside, physical

    Crop chemical tester - in a lab all day, repetitive, better pay

    Chaotic orbit dynamics student researcher - fun, but I felt I was in over my head

    Campus events usher - easy, paid well, saw excellent performances and speeches

    Educational dot-com developer - fun, but hard to keep focus all day

    Physical oceanographer, defense contractor - paid well, mentally demanding and hard to stay on task

    Masters student - paid okay, classes were fun, felt a bit directionless on the research

    Rocket scientist - cool title, cool project, pays well, I like it

    Posted 1 year ago #
34. 

    demasoni
    

    Novice
    Joined: Mar '11
    Posts: 7

    Video game tester - got paid 12.50 to play games for 8 hour shifts. Very laid back atmosphere and we were free to get up and talk to people when I got bored.

    Boys and girls club - hung out with kids and played games with them for minimum wage

    Assistant teacher esl adult class - helped with conversational English

    Fund admin - a lot of down time to read and study.

    Posted 1 year ago #
35. 

    secretwealth
    

    Expert
    Joined: Jun '11
    Posts: 1,577

    I would recommend being an adjunct professor but not a real professor. The level of interoffice politics in any university is ridiculous, but actually teaching and interacting with students about a topic you love is a priceless experience.

    If there is a topic you know very well and you get a master's in it, you may be able to adjunct at a local community college. The experience can be really fun, and the pay is pretty good--some adjuncts can pull $15k/yr. working just 9 hours a week for 9 months out of the year.

    Posted 1 year ago #
36. 

    Shandi76
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Jan '11
    Posts: 112

    I teach at an FE College (kind of the UK equivalent of a Community College). I agree with secretwealth that the teaching is really enjoyable. You get paid to learn new things all the time, and get to work with keen, enthusiastic students some of whom don't have a lot of confidence or aptitude at the start but come on in leaps and bounds. I've got a few students like that this year and I am so proud of them when I look back to what they were like 2 years ago when they started. You do get a few students who have no interest and are just there because it beats signing on and you have to not take it personally or it gets emotionally draining.

    I also used to teach at a University part-time and that was even better as it was a) better run, b) had better admin support and c) you got a greater proportion of bright and enthusiastic students.

    Posted 1 year ago #

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