On this week's episode they visited a guy with a lot of antique automobile memorabilia like things related to gas stations including a lot of antique gas pumps. The stars of the show like to buy this sort of stuff but this particular person did not want to sell any of his gas pumps because he "is going to restore them for his retirement."
Whether he restores them or not could have been hoarder-speak and will never know what happens but this gentleman clearly loves the memorabilia in question, appeared to have dozens of these pumps and the show gave the impression that he indeed knows how restore them.
If you look around a little bit on the interweb you will find old gas pumps for sale ranging from $5000-$15,000. One related website gave a wide estimate of 20-100 hours to restore a pump and I would assume that amount of time would not pertain to beginners. For someone who'd spent their first 60 years around these things then finding them (or having them in a back shed), restoring them and selling them would be well inside the wheelhouse.
I don't know the costs involved in restoring a gas pump but using the numbers above, if the profits range from $2500-$7500 then it doesn't take too many restored gas pumps during the year to supplement a decent income and/or relieve the burden off of an investment portfolio. One gas pump per calendar quarter would go pretty far for someone living an $80,000 lifestyle and 20-100 hours over the course of a three month period is not an unreasonable time burden.
A related example could be camping trailers like the one pictured. There is a market for vintage/retro/antique everything and some narrow slice of the population with the access and know how for all of it. The point here is not that you should go out an learn how to restore espresso machines, motorcycles or anything else but to circle back to an often repeated idea; retirement is going to be different for many of us. For many it will mean having income from some sort of job. People who can accept this probability early have a better chance of figuring out how to make money from something they love doing and would do for free.
It is reasonable to think that people who must work would rather do something they enjoy as opposed to being forced to take something that will pay them an income.
Often in this context you will see negative comments about being the Walmart greeter which I won't dump on. I don't know any Walmart greeters but there was a guy reviewing receipts at our Costco for at least ten years who loved the job in a way that is difficult to believe unless you saw it firsthand. Where someone can love that so much, so too could someone love being the Walmart greeter. Just as this may seem odd to some, I'm sure my interest in firefighting seems odd to others.
DIGITAL JUICE
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