My friend Russ approached early retirement hobbies much smarter than I have financially. He performs with friends in a rock band and I’ve enjoyed our sports car and participating in performance driving events. While we’re both investing extra time into these hobbies that we enjoyed before careers and kids got in the way – I am investing a lot more money.
In fact, I’m leaving this weekend on a charity road rally to Mount Rushmore, Deadwood SD, and Devil’s Tower WY. I’ll be driving one of almost 100 cars in the rally, which raises money for the Epilepsy Foundation. This event cost a few hundred dollars to enter plus a couple nights hotel on the road. It’s the last of a half dozen car events that I’ve done since last spring.
Including the depreciation on the car, I’m sure that my car hobby costs thousands of dollars a year. I’ve never actually added it all up as I’m afraid it will impact my enjoyment of it!
Clever Russ, on the other hand, participates in a similar number of events from spring to summer, and gets PAID for them! His band does fun gigs at clubs, breweries, and private events and he is the lead singer. He doesn’t even have to pay for an expensive instrument beyond his microphone.
His band takes the winter off as he and his wife snowbird down to Florida.
Maybe I would have a place in Florida if I found a cheaper retirement hobby! 🙂
How expensive are your hobbies? Have any that pay?
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MrFireStation 
Yes. And yes. But my view is that all hobbies “pay” — some in dollars, most in self-directed satisfaction of one type or another. Example: Genealogy is one of my “cheapest” hobbies. But to me the rewards of discovering ancestors is immense and intense. Priceless!
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Yes – I’m the family genealogist for my family and my wife’s family. It’s like a big, never ending puzzle. Like you, that’s what brought us to Scotland last year.
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I started to gain money from hobbies… 😀 . Almost all I donate or reinvest (I discovered the concept of p2p lending so 10% per year is great, let’s see how much I can go just from my hobbies)
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I’d like to try that P2P lending idea. Is there a specific one you would recommend?
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I am in europe so I look on this market. There are several sites providing…I did an list with all I found, compared a little (bayback guaranty is an important criteria; another is diversity of the market, by type of bussiness and by country) and I make an account and transfered some money. 10% is a great value for investments for 6-12 months.
That s it 🙂
Ok, is still a playground for me…I invested very little. Experiencing 🙂
Send me an email and I will tell you more about how I judge to decide which project and witch not.
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