What are your views on working as a consultant? If you have had previous experience within a high-demand field and have advanced degrees, you may consider becoming a consultant after retiring. There are fields where long-term experience is valuable, such as litigation, finance, IT and others. If you are too busy to job-hunt, you could join a headhunter or job placement firm. This way you maximize your chances to avoid time-wasting due to applying for mediocre jobs, since they usually represent companies paying a good salary. They do take a cut of your earning, but on the bright side, they can find you good opportunities due to having access to a large database of companies that may happen to need your skills.
I have worked as consultant in the past. I had worked in the medical insurance industry for 25 plus years. I used that experience to do various freelance and consulting work. I do have a BS degree, but it's in a field totally unrelated to my job experience. I worked in the insurance industry to put myself through college and stayed after I graduated. Insurance paid more. I also have great computer skills and knowledge. I'm self taught. I used to read most of the computer magazines and listen to computer radio shows. I used that knowledge to help healthcare providers especially physicians and chiropractors.
I was a consultant for most of my career - over 25 years in fact. I do it differently these days - now I do IT and writing projects - I have clients that send me requests for articles that I write: Recently I wrote articles on nano-technology, on designer shoes, on supplements, on LED lights and on selling a business. It's fun, researching and writing. I get about 1c USA a word for docs from 500-1500 words on average. All done from home outside of school times (I home school my kids). The IT stuff is for projects, but take a lot more time and carry much more risk (and more return too!). A simple money earner for retirees is teaching native English over Skype. Several companies do it, and it can be arranged at times to suit as its global. I have friends that have done this.
I am in the insurance industry as a independant producer for several companies. I have worked as a consultant to help people attempting to get their disabiltiy from the social security department where my insurance background was very useful. Being a consultant has worked well for me.
I have worked as a consultant for part of my career, around 10 years. And I do admit it was good, and I really appricate the experience since I was so good at it. I think that because I have the experience, I'd have more chances on raking in the bigger coorporations with bigger pay. Besides how hard could it be to just sit around and talk to people?
My husband had retired when he reached 50 but he accepted when offered a consultancy job. His schedule is a 9 to 5 office work but only twice a week. That leaves him time for his other endeavors. I can see that he is enjoying his occupation very much because he is popular with his colleagues and his job has no pressure at all.
There are things I can help others, with as a volunteer, which I have done in the past and may do again after retirement. The best thing about working a consultant after retirement, apart from the money it brings in, is that you choose how many hours you want to work and how much leisure time you want to have. I only wish I had the knowledge to rake in a lot of money as a consultant, for doing very little apart from giving out business advice.