Summer has a habit of making those good intentions to start your retirement side hustle disappear.
Perhaps earlier in the year you decided it was finally time to investigate ways of earning some extra money in retirement.
You bookmarked a few websites. Read some articles. Maybe even signed up for some training.

Then summer arrived.
There were holidays, family visits, days out, gardening, grandchildren and all the other things that suddenly seem more appealing than sitting at a computer learning how to build a side hustle.
And that’s perfectly understandable.
But summer is fading, whether we like it or not.
So perhaps now is a good time to revisit those plans.
How I Started My Retirement Side Hustle
Earlier in the year, I started with the ClickBank Profit Club, and have been quietly building it over the summer.
You can read more about why I chose it, here.
But in a nutshell, so much is done-for-you, by a 9x ClickBank Platinum Vendor (see below), that it’s a complete no-brainer, especially as you can open an account, free, to check it out.
In case you don’t know: A ClickBank Platinum Vendor is an elite, top-tier seller on the ClickBank affiliate marketing platform who has generated at least $250,000 in gross sales within a single calendar year. That’s the top 1% of ClickBank users.
So he knows what he’s talking about, and is ready to teach YOU, so that you can get started properly! (And you can earn as you learn.)
Over the last few months I’ve earned more than $2,000 as a side-hustle. More importantly, I’ve built a list of customers who are being emailed for me, to make purchases as extra products are added, on which I can earn commissions.
While I had my early holiday, John and his team have been adding extra products – and one particularly exciting development, designed to give you a boost moving into autumn.
Look below for the Autumn Challenge.
Winter Is Coming – So What About Your Retirement Plans?
“Winter is coming” might be best known as a dramatic warning from Game of Thrones, but at this time of year it also makes a useful reminder.
The seasons don’t wait for us.
Neither does retirement.
If you’ve been thinking that some additional income would make retirement more comfortable, simply thinking about starting a side hustle won’t change anything.
That doesn’t mean you need to launch a huge business tomorrow, creating your own websites and products.
In fact, I’d argue the opposite.
A retirement side hustle should ideally be something you can develop gradually, without turning the years when you finally have more freedom into another full-time job.
But at some point, you do have to start.
Why Autumn Can Be a Good Time to Start
There’s something about September and autumn that feels like a second New Year.
Summer routines end. People return from holidays. Children go back to school. Normal life starts again, and there may be holiday credit card bills to repay.
It’s a natural time to refocus.
We’re also heading towards Christmas, when household spending tends to increase, and thoughts about money can become rather more pressing.
Then January arrives, bringing all those resolutions about changing jobs, improving finances and finally doing the things we’ve been postponing.
If you’re considering starting a side hustle for retirement income, why wait until January to begin learning?
Starting now gives you time to explore the possibilities before the New Year rush.
First, Look Back at Your Summer
Before deciding what to do next, ask yourself a slightly uncomfortable question:
What progress did I actually make over the summer?
Perhaps you made plenty.
But perhaps your plans quietly stalled.
If so, there’s no benefit in feeling guilty about it. What matters is recognising what happened.
- Did you lose interest?
- Was the opportunity you chose too complicated?
- Did it require more time than you’d expected?
- Were you overwhelmed by all the different things people told you that you “must” do?
- Or did life simply get in the way?
The answer matters because your retirement side hustle needs to fit your life.
If you’re approaching retirement, the last thing you probably want is to escape decades of employment only to accidentally create another job for yourself.
Look for Something You Can Learn Gradually
One reason people postpone starting an online side hustle is the feeling that they don’t know enough.
There’s always another skill to learn.
Websites. Email marketing. Social media. Advertising. Finding customers. Creating content.
It can seem overwhelming.
But you don’t need to master everything – I can show you a side-hustle where most of the hard work is done for you, in a structured system where you can learn something, put it into practice and then move on to the next step.
Good training and support are particularly important.
I’ve learned that I don’t want to be responsible for knowing the answer to every technical or customer question myself. That’s one reason I favour opportunities that have established training and support behind them.
A side hustle should give you more options, not make you permanently available to everybody who needs help.
An Autumn Challenge To Start Your Retirement Side Hustle
As mentioned earlier, a side hustle I’ve been successful with is ClickBank Profit Club (CBPC, affiliate link), and there’s currently a new Challenge being introduced for members to get them taking action.
What caught my attention wasn’t simply the Challenge itself.
It was the emphasis on taking action.
That’s important because there’s an enormous difference between learning about making money online and actually building something that has the potential to produce income.
I’ve certainly been guilty of consuming information when I should have been implementing it!
The Challenge is intended to encourage members to stop simply watching and start doing.
There’s a free CBPC membership option, so someone who is curious can look inside without having to make a large financial commitment just to investigate it.
Inside the members’ area, the Wed 19th 2026 Profit Clinic (inside the Live Training) explains what’s coming and what members can expect from the Challenge.
Don’t Expect Guarantees
I should make one thing very clear.
Joining a program doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make money. Neither does watching training.
Two people can be given the same information and produce completely different results because one takes action and the other doesn’t.
Be cautious of anyone who suggests that simply joining their program will automatically produce a particular level of income.
Give Yourself One Small Autumn Task
If you’ve spent the summer thinking about starting a retirement side hustle but haven’t actually moved forward, don’t give yourself an enormous list of jobs.
Choose a simple side hustle where the product creator relieves you of the major strain of product creation and email follow-up.
To look at the side hustle that’s working for me, you can open a free ClickBank Profit Club account (affiliate link).
Then enter the members’ area and watch the Profit Clinic dated 19th August 2026 to see what’s coming as summer fades into autumn.
The Autumn Challenge is definitely something that will get your retirement side hustle off to a good start.
You don’t have to decide the entire future of your retirement business today. But ask yourself one question:
Will you still be thinking about starting when January arrives – or will you have actually started?
Summer is fading.
Autumn is almost here.
And perhaps that’s exactly the nudge you needed to finally give your retirement side hustle a proper chance, with The ClickBank ProfitClub. (Affiliate link)



All of the reasons you share are spot on Joy.
Starting a side hustle now makes sense. Get things going with good weather momentum behind you as Autumn tends to be a sweet season.
As you said there are no guarantees because people need to take action on these programs consistently by sharing value, earning trust and building a loyal community. That’s no small feat but it is required work in order to thrive through your side hustle.
I love the GOT reference too.
I think everyone, including me, let their side hustle slip a little over the summer.
But we have a chance to get back on track with the challenge that starts on the ClickBank Profit Club tomorrow.