Retiring brings a whole host of benefits to your life. You now have all those extra hours to spend with your family, improving your health, picking up a new hobby and ticking off a few ideas on that bucket list you have written. But have you ever thought about the money you can earn?

There are some retirement hobbies that make money along with a multitude of other interesting and quirky ways to earn a bit of extra cash to put into your rainy-day fund!

Here are eight of our favourite ways of making money in your retirement.

Dog walking / pet sitting

If you’re a pet lover, dog walking and pet sitting may be your calling. With dog walkers earning on average £6 - £10 an hour it can make for a good little earner for you during retirement. Let’s not forget that walking is a great activity for maintaining good health so not only can you make money but get fit at the same time!

Private tutoring

If you have an academic subject which you are passionate about and have a deep understanding of, why not become a private tutor? Working as a private tutor can be hugely rewarding and a great way to earn money flexibly by choosing which hours you want to work to fit in with your lifestyle. Currently, you need no formal qualifications, nor do you need a teaching certificate to become a private tutor, so it may be easier than you think to start.

If you are a recently retired teacher but you still want to continue doing what you love, then private tutoring is the perfect opportunity for you to continue teaching. You will already have expert knowledge of the academic subject you wish to teach and will have a firm understanding of the school curriculum. Private tutoring will enable you to continue to help young people succeed, but without the pressures of long hours and large classes.

Sport event marshal

If you’re a sports fan, why not become an event marshal for some great sporting events? Large events require great numbers of marshals to ensure the days run to plan, and they often pay marshals for their work. It’s a great way to travel, see your favourite sports events for free while getting up close and personal to the action and you will meet new people (as well as making some extra cash – bonus!)

House sitting

Websites such as housesittersuk.co.uk allow you to find members around the country in need of a house sitter, in return you can stay in their home for free. This is a great way of being able to travel the country (or world) house sitting in wonderful locations. There are other websites you can look at too such as mindahome.co.uk which offer payment in return for house sitting duties.

Gardening

Retirement is the perfect opportunity to devote some of that new-found spare time to the garden. For the green fingered retirees, you will be happy to know that gardening doesn’t just need to be a hobby, there’s money to be made in it too. Gardening can earn you around £15 or more an hour, dependant on your skills and availability. You can promote your gardening services through word of mouth or through notice boards in your local area. You’ll be trimming hedges and de-weeding in no time while pocketing those extra pounds!

Make and sell things

As we mentioned earlier, being retired gives you time to find things you enjoy and start up a hobby to fill your days. If you have a hobby such as cake making, flower arranging or knitting you can make this into an income stream by selling these online using websites such as Etsy and Ebay.

Freelancing

When you retire you may not want to give up on your craft completely which is where freelancing comes in. If your previous career was in writing, graphic design, video editing and translating (to name just a few), these are all services which are in high-demand meaning you could make money from this. Visit websites such as fiverr.com to see what services people are advertising and see if you could do something similar.

Film extra

We thought we would leave the slightly extravagant cash earner until last. Rather than spending your retirement sat watching your favourite TV shows, why not star in them instead? Being a film, extra is not only fun but you may even end up rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. You must be willing to travel and expect long days, but in return you get to have a fun side-line, meeting new people and travelling.

Bonus tip

If pursuing a vocation in retirement isn’t really your thing and you would prefer to earn more of a passive income instead then why not use your home to earn some extra cash? Aside from the obvious renting out your spare room, discover the surprising number of interesting, alternative ways you can make money from your home.