At retirement we are faced with major lifestyle changes from NOT going to work every day to NOT having a regular income, having too much time for not enough to do.

Maybe what you want to do is have a small business that can occupy your time and provide some welcome and needed extra cash.

If you are fortunate enough to have a profession like mine (real estate broker) you can "work" where and when you want, full-time or part-time. You never actually HAVE to retire. But for those that "work" a regular job and will retire from that job, a business can provide a nice transition.

What kind of business, you say? Well, you are retired so you don't want something that will make you a slave. You want to be able to do it or not as you see fit. Some possibilities are to buy a taxicab, go to H&R Block and learn tax preparation, teach courses at The Learning Annex, get a real estate license, or start a home-based business.

Many home-based businesses are actually network marketing opportunities. This is probably an ideal choice for a retiree because it "forces" you to inter-act with people. It keeps you alive! And if it is the right one and you get in at the right time you will make a lot of money for doing very little.

My current favorite is called ytb (which stands for your travel biz). For a very small upfront fee (less than $500) you are in business. If you do nothing but avail yourself of the benefits of the travel discounts for your own vacation you are money ahead. If you jump in with both feet you can expect to make good money. Attending training sessions, workshops, and conventions give you plenty of opportunities to meet with friends and associates.

Other home-based businesses include Internet marketing. You can sell "things" or information. You can provide entertainment or "free" services and get paid for advertising on your site. You can play the search engine optimization (SEO) game to send "traffic" to another site that will pay you for those visitors, either for "clicks" or results.

And you can blog for dollars. After all, blogging is a lead generation technique. You just need to make sure that you have a way to "translate" your leads into cash.

The nice thing about these kinds of businesses is that you can "put them down" and "pick them back up" as you want. You are the master of your own time and your own fate.

I will be talking about another type of home-based business in the next chapter called "who says money doesn't grow on trees?" Stay tuned.