How do I plan to be productive after retirement?

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: November 11, 2024 at 6:00 am

In response to our article, Ten mistakes to avoid while planning for early retirement, a reader wants to know how he can plan to be productive after retirement. For completion, point 1 from the above article is reproduced here.

1. Have a clear post-retirement engagement plan. Retirement (early or normal) does not mean a complete cessation of work. It is a time to be even more organised, disciplined and productive. Think of yourself as running a one-person company using time as a precious resource. Use your acquired skills to help others directly or online. Create an income stream from this. One should start this process years before retirement. So, how do we go about this?

The following will take time and effort. So the sooner you start, the better. Time management is the only requirement. If you tell yourself, “I will allocate one hour per week to work on a future income stream (active/passive), ” you have to put in that one hour, rain or shine.

Theoretically, active or passive income is the overlap of skill and utiity. Practically it is all about consistency

A venn diagram with overlap of skills and utility
A Venn diagram with an overlap of skills and utility
  1. Which of your skills would solve a problem for others while making you happy and content? The answer is your potential income stream. This can be active or passive. A good thumbrule is to ask what (productive) activity will distract you, even if you are in despair.
  2. Then, you need to learn how others monetise this content and how you can do it differently. Why should someone pay you when there are others?
  3. Start an online presence: tweet about developments in your skill space. Write short articles on Facebook, in a blog, and on YouTube. Create a community; create an identity (even if people hate your views, they should not be able to ignore you). Polarization works!
  4. Develop trust in your community. Trust is your most important asset.
  5. Recognise their problems. This would inspire not only new content but also new products.
  6. Do not start selling anything or offering a service until people write to you: “I want you to help; how do I pay?”
  7. Recognising all this will take years and years.

This is a broad template. Use this to chart your course. Our course may be of help: Increase your income by getting people to pay for your skills!