Good transitional jobs for semi retirement?

[BishyBarnyBee]

Inspired by the "when do you expect to retire" thread.

A lot of people are not going to be able to afford to stop working at 60, but may not need/be physically able to carry on working full time in a demanding job.

What are the most sustainable jobs to keep you going through your 60s?

Ideally fairly interesting/worthwhile but leaving you some energy for other stuff in the rest of the week?

Anyone found an ideal transitional job when they stopped working full time?

I’ll transition into part time hours in the role I’m currently in, or a similar one, if all goes to plan (not being made redundant beforehand, for example). I work in the public sector which is generally quite flexible for people approaching retirement. I recognise I’m very fortunate.

My mum (NHS) reduced her hours from full time to part time before she retired. I might do the same - I'm 0.8 FTE at the moment and I can see myself going down to 0.6 or 0.5 (higher education). The other thing I may do is marking assessments for trainees in my area of expertise. My dad took on a consultancy role after retiring (he was in health and safety). My DH is musical and is planning to do piano tuning after he retires.

Dh and I plan to stay in our usual jobs but both go to 3 days per week. Jobs with those hours are like hens teeth in my profession though so I might just take short term contracts with a few months break in between. The other option is to self employed but I'm worried that sounds like hard work!

Sig up with a temping agency. It is easy to get lots of admin work. They pay isn't great, but then neither is the workload or the stress. You can take or leave assignments that suit you - so if you want to be free in the Summer then you can do that, or if you find somewhere you like you can ask to be kept informed if anything come up there in future. In my experience if you do a good job most places are keen for you to extend your time there if you want to.

I think I plan to do some consultancy in my current job (after a period of part time, but the reality is when you are v senior then make the part time switch I don't think it works indefinitely - the younger ambitious people are pushing for the role)

I like the idea of exam invigilating after that, thats what my great aunt did, a few months work a year to get a cash boost ( she was also a school governor and a charity trustee so she was pretty busy all year round!)

I dream of working in a library as a semi retired job but I did that as a university summer job and you are actually on your feet quite a bit so I am not sure it's realistic for me now (I have a neurological condition)

Junior roles in civil service? In theory recruitment should be less ageist than other sectors.

Where I live, "chippy" means joiner/carpenter, so that's extremely physically demanding!

What does "working as a chippy" mean to you?

I'm a teacher with extra responsibililty and i would like to be a primary TA or ideally a school librarian.

I certainly couldn’t do the retail & hospitality jobs I did as a student when I’m 60!

I read that as working IN a chippy (chip shop). Being a 'chippy' is highly skilled.

LookingOldTheseDays, I wasn't sure what the "working as a chippy" meant either in this context.

I was thinking that jobs like nursing and teaching could be quite hard to sustain into your 60s.

There are some great ideas here but obviously "reduce your hours in your current job" will work for some people better than others. The admin/temping sounds like it could be a good flexible option for a lot of people who were used to being well organised and reliable in their existing career.

Thanks everyone, a lot to think about here.

Remote or hybrid senior admin job, this is what my friend does and she's earning £40k at 59.

Depends on your skills, on how much you want to earn and how much you want to be challenged.

Some people - teachers, nurses GPs etc - can do supply / bank / locum work - pick and choose the days they work and walk away without all the other stuff that comes with working FT. I'm sure that is the same in lots of roles.
Some professionals can become 'consultants'.

I know one person who got himself a job collecting trolleys in a supermarket. He loved it - "just pottering about outside, chatting to people" is how he described it
Another started delivering leaflet (and used to do the free newspaper when they existed). His logic being it helped him keep to his resolution of walking every day, and someone might as well pay him for doing it
Another does admin jobs through an agency - sometimes it is a couple of days, sometimes she does a spell covering for a couple of months
Someone else works in an outdoor shop on a zero hour contract
I know someone who does a lot of the "paperwork" for a newish business her family member is setting up
I know two people who got part time paid jobs in Charity administration
I know a couple of teachers who do some PT TA work.
I know a couple of people who do things like teaching piano, or tutoring for GCSEs
One who plays the organ for funerals (and the odd wedding).
Someone who helps out a friend who runs a catering business on an ad hoc basis.
Someone who picks up hours at a florist at their buy times (wedding season / Valentines / Mothering Sunday)

I will carry on being a nurse lecturer but maybe 3 days a week. As a senior lecturer that will pay as much as some full time jobs.

Driver for out of hours GP service. Ceremonial crew for funeral director.

Same here.

I am a senior inhouse compliance lawyer. I can do it part time and am amenable to doing it at a more junior level but my firm is not very progressive so I may have to change jobs to do a pt role or become a 'consultant'.

For solicitors, there are also paralegal-type contract roles such as document review which can be done remotely, if AI has not taken over those jobs by the time I retire 😆

All desk bound and retirement friendly.

This sounds fab..

Could you share what you retrained in as I would like to become self employed now but don't know what to do ...

Im a lawyer too and plan to work until I'm 67 and then do something related, not sure what atm. Mind you I still have 14 years to go so who knows what will happen!

Watching this as I’d like to leave my senior NHS post (before it kills me off) at 60. 8 years to go but I’m planning!!

Just seen this has been resurrected. It made me smile as I lasted 10 months after posting that then retired with no transitional job at all. I was obviously thinking about it quite hard at that point but still wary of making the leap.

Absolutely no regrets here. I have found a couple of days a week of fairly flexible volunteering, have found lots to do with my time and have never been happier. I am on a fairly restricted budget and Mr Bishy has a few years to go yet. So it's a fairly low key retirement rather than the "boomer on permanent holiday" type, but it is suiting me and I feel very blessed.

Good luck to all of you making your decisions, I definitely knew when it was time to go.

Really pleased to hear this