An important part of retirement planning is to figure out exactly what you will do with your time.  Having a hobby that you enjoy may even mean that you never have any spare time. .. and that is not a bad problem to have.

If you do not have a hobby already, there are a large number of websites to give you ideas.  Here are just a sample:

• Retirement hobbies and leisure time activities
• Retirement Hobbies for a longer life
• Hobbies For Retirement Happiness
• Retirement with a purpose
• More Retirement Hobbies

Of course the best retirement hobbies are developed before retirement.  If you have an interest in lifelong learning, then taking a refresher course in some other language like Conversational Irish (Ghaeilge Labhartha) may be just the thing for you.

If your hobby is also your passion, then that is the best of all worlds.  There was an interesting article in the Vancouver Sun about 74 year-old Geoffrey Scudder who is a retired entomologist.

Courtesy of
The Nature Trust of British Columbia

This English-born Vancouver resident has about 80,000 bugs in his basement lab. He taught for more than 40 years at the University of British Columbia until his retirement a decade ago.  His lab is stacked from floor to ceiling with about 400 wooden boxes full of dried bugs.  This has been his main research centre since he retired in 1999 and lost his six-room lab facility at UBC. Though retired from teaching, Scudder continues to act as a driving force of science and public education in the field of biodiversity in this province.

The bulk of his worldwide specimen collection is already split between the Spencer Entomological Museum at UBC and The Canadian National Collection of Insects in Ottawa (his Canadian collection), the British Museum in London (European, British Isles and African specimens), the American Museum of Natural History in New York (North American) and the Bishop Museum in Hawaii (Pacific region).

It would almost seem that the word hobby is too small or lightweight to describe the continuation of Geoffrey Scudder’s life work.  However for many other retirees, their hobby can become equally involving and fulfilling.  If you know of others whose hobbies are so enriching or you have your own hobby that is somewhat unusual, then why not add a note in the comments.

Footnote: If you are interested in books on Hobbies, then why not visit the Hobbies section of the Money Bookstore.

Technorati Tags: entomology, retirement planning