User 120792

Baby Boomers, It's Time to Monetize Your Hobbies

Suddenly monetizing a hobby with the expectation of real revenue and positive cash flow to augment retirement income is a wishful pipedream. The underlying psychodymamics of a hobby ( if it is truly a hobby) are rooted in satysfying and joyful relief from the more arduous but necessary tasks of living. For most, a hobby passes a cost benefit analysis by simplying ignoring the cost and over rationalizing the benefit. Face it: for most, a true hobby is an indulgence that must be entered in life's ledger using red ink. This is an ironic but perverse part of a hobby's pleasure.

A more realistic approach in retirement would be to bring simple objective cost accounting to one's hobby. Once it's true cost is determined and squarely cofronted, the hobby might be unmasked as a financial liability. Ultimately, more benefit would accrue to most people from merely knowing a hobby's true cost and acting to moderate it while maximizing its pleasure rather than undertaking a heroic effort to transform it into a for-profit venture.

Despite outward appearances, something cannot be a hobby and a business at the same time.