I took early retirement many years ago and started shopping for a number of reasons including staying active. I would say that retired is probably the best position from which to shop. Chances are you have some sources of retirement income such that shopping is a supplement rather than trying to make a living of it (which is really tough and my hat is off to those who manage it).
Do a few shops with the easy companies such as Market Force, Bare, Maritz and Stericycle. These companies generally have good instructions and easy shops. In exchange the pay is often not so hot. But they are bigger companies that have shops everywhere and as long as you follow instructions it is my experience that they pay without hesitation.
You can sort of divide shoppers into two camps--those who are shopping for the cash benefits and those who are shopping for the lifestyle benefits. I certainly started doing routes of shops that I put together and could readily make $100 or more per day depending on how many stops I got organized and how late at night I wanted to stay up writing reports. Over time I have mellowed out a lot. I let shops pay for my oil changes, groceries, a handful of nice restaurants each month (we have decided we don't like the pretentiousness of fine dining on a regular basis which suits me fine because I don't like spending a few hours writing reports after a mandatory alcoholic drink that has me only wanting to sleep), postal shops to send things to family and the occasional entertainment (such as the movie Saturday night we wanted to see anyway). But back in the day I did find a better bank than the one where I had my accounts thanks to doing bank shops and I continue being happy with them about 9 years later. I did a bunch of cell phone shops to decide what was the most reasonable plan for us and every time we think about changing providers it is time to do a bunch of cell phone shops (plus visits to the second and third tier providers who are rarely shopped). When I was thinking about changing carpeting I did a bunch of flooring shops to see what was available out there.
Most companies are systematic about when they pay and their website tells you when that will be. Most companies will not reject a shop when the guidelines have been followed and the appropriate proofs of visit are submitted in a timely fashion. Most people in this world treat you like you treat them so with a few notable exceptions in the shopping world, you will get back the same attitude you project. Losing communications is unlikely to happen if you use google's gmail. There have been documented problems with AOL mail and Yahoo mail. Since you should have a 'professional' email account in addition to your personal one(s), it costs exactly the same to get gmail or yahoo mail or Hotmail or most any other one, $0, so it seems like a no-brainer to me to go with gmail. In more than a decade of using my gmail account for shopping I have never NOT gotten an email following up on a shop I did.
Over time you will find companies where you feel the chemistry just isn't there. You don't need to resign from them, you just stop doing shops for them. You don't want to resign because some day they may have a client you really want to shop and undoing a termination is tough.
You want to go visit your kids/grandkids, go on a cruise, take a second honeymoon to Niagara Falls. No problem, just don't sign up for shops while you expect to be away (except I always look for nifty restaurant shops when I go visit my son so I can take him out to dinner).
I decided this fall to do some major landscaping and repainting my house. I slacked off on all except groceries and dinner shops because I know that as I get older I have less energy to get it all done. No problem.
