Hobbies are not for making money. That’s what a job is for. Hobbies are where you sink the money you have left from your job and all the other expenses are paid.

That said.

Hobbies for me include:

Hiking (lots of good trails nearby)

Making sounds on my Synth (I’m building a case right now)

TTRPGS (when you can wrangle enough folks)

Skirmish Games (mainly Gaslands)

Video games (slay the spire, and casual WoW)

Warning - do not make your creative/fun hobby the one that also makes you money. I’ve met several people who were into woodworking as a hobby, started doing it on commission for family, friends, referrals, etc, and it quickly became a job rather than a fun hobby. The timelines and demands that come with doing commissions killed it for them, they still occasionally do woodworking as gifts/favors, but very explicitly just for family and close friends without timelines, and only charge for materials

I’m an electronics hobbyist. I have a whole big tacklebox full of components, wires, microcontrollers etc, I’m an amateur radio operator, I build gaming PCs, etc. Kind of difficult to make money with this hobby, but it’s often a good mind exercise and you can be creative building things. I also save myself money by fixing things around the house with my tools.

I’m a woodworker. I built a cutting board this weekend, a walnut/maple brick pattern. Turned out pretty good. Keeping a woodworking hobby from devolving into tool collecting can be a trick.

I’m a guitarist, have been since I was 11. Can be a fairly cheap way to burn some time, get an inexpensive guitar, a few picks, etc. Occasionally get to show off at a bonfire when someone breaks out an acoustic.

I grow a small vegetable garden, and I can some of what I produce. Pizza sauce and jelly mostly. Mint jelly is surprisingly nice to have around the house and it’s not that difficult to make. And mint plants are eternal. The biggest struggle to growing mint is to keep it from escaping containment.

I am a filthy hobby hopper and I spend most of my disposable income on these.

• Tinkering with retro game handhelds and sometimes playing them
• Tinkering with bikes and sometimes riding them
• Tinkering with DIY watches and sometimes using them to tell time
• Also bird photography

My theory also is to have 3 hobbies but a different take: One that you can do at home when you have free time, I play guitar. One that gets you out of the house, I fly fish. One that gives you something to look forward to, I used to go on monthly backpacking trips but as I get older they’re turning into fishing trips

Beekeeping, rowing, swimming, knitting, photography, gardening. I also do quite a bit of tech stuff, and some sewing and baking. None of it is for income, though I have been paid for a few photos.

Beekeeping is far and away the most absorbing and interesting hobby I’ve ever had. Where I live there are very active local associations that support learning and hold social events. The national association organises courses at all levels. A government department sends out bee inspectors to check for disease; great support and another learning opportunity.

If you want to, you can make good money from selling honey. It’s a lot of hard work, but really enjoyable.

Adding to the interesting lists here: As a sport for me I found bouldering and climbing. I don’t like sport but bouldering is not about sport but about getting up that stupid wall, and it feels amazing.

I have multiple hobbies, some require my brain (programming, electronics, engineering and stuff like that) Others not so much (music production/playing live sets, building dioramas, woodworking, metalworking, working on my motorcycle or cooking) And I can highly recommend to get hobbies that both require some concentration and creativity so you can have some balance :) Good luck!

Boardgaming and RPGs kind of tie into my profession in design. I see my job as organizing information, so when I play games I’m just naturally working out ways to present the information for myself or other players as efficiently as possible. Or I’m writing/designing homebrew material because for some reason I get inspired sometimes.

My physical “hobby” is walking/exercise, though I have hard time calling that a hobby, it’s just something I do without thinking about it, it’d be like calling eating a hobby, it’s just something I do that seems important for my survival.

I do:

Yoga

Gardening

Baking (sourdough)

Do occasionally draw or paint too.

I think you have to find something you actually enjoy. If you are good at swimming, triathlon is a great idea but the long distance ones do take a lot of training time.

I don’t try to monetize hobbies anymore, it’s a drag.

Hobbies that are creative for me are cooking/baking/canning. Which reminds me, I need to get apples for apple butter.

I’ve been making mechanical keyboards “from scratch” for the last year or so. I leverage a lot of pre-built parts and existing tools of course, but I tweak the standard layouts to fit what I want to do, fabricate the plates and cases with my laser engraver and 3D printer, assemble everything, wire them up to the switches and the microcontroller (usually “dead bug” hand-wiring, but I have done a very basic PCB in KiCAD as well), and configure the firmware. It leverages a lot of my other interests, provides an opportunity to improve incrementally between projects, and results in a product that is legitimately pleasant to use.

Little bastards are piling up, though.

3d printing, soap making, mantis keeping and board games when I can find people to play with.

3d printing and role-playing. I print miniatures that my friends and I paint. Then we use them in our games.

PC gaming, being bi sexual, eating hot chip, psychedelics, disc golf

Now playing Huarache Lights by Hot Chip

Fairly consistently: 3D printing, wood working, amateur radio, RC cars, and cooking.

Also playing with: sewing, tablet weaving, lifting weights, and guitar.