#coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve #retirement #EarlyRretirement #lockdown
So, you were locked down in your homes for weeks.
Perhaps you worked from home, or still are.
Having nowhere to go gives one a lot of time to think.
Perhaps you thought about retiring early, since you may have gotten a small taste of what it might be like to be retired.
Wes Moss, who writes the “Money Matters” column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and has a similar radio show on WSB, News Talk 750 in Atlanta, discussed this in a June 7, 2020, column.
Moss asks, “Has the lockdown experience affected your vision of retirement? Maybe you always anticipated a staycation retirement,” the article says.
Moss advises asking yourself these questions:
1. What will you do in retirement? Travel? Buy a lake house? Soil the grandkids, he writes.
2. How important is routine to you? Getting out of the house to go to work every day provides such a routine, he writes
3. Who are you? Many people, especially men, define themselves by their jobs.
4. How will you spend your days in retirement?
5. How will you get your human fix?, he asks. Social isolation during the pandemic has driven some folks nuts, which may explain the video and photos we see of crowded gatherings, with no social distancing, as some places ease lockdown rules.
6. (Perhaps the biggest question might be) How about the money? Moss has always said that many people discover they need less money to live on than they thought they would. Certainly, the lockdown has put money back in some people’s pockets because they weren’t traveling, eating out, driving etc., as they normally would.
7. Will you keep working in retirement?

Since Moss’ first five questions focus on personality, let’s focus on the last two practical matters.
If you have saved well, and invested well, during your working years, you are a big step ahead of most. Many people have not. If you are among those who have not, there are several ways that, with a little effort and determination, can help you build a nest egg relatively quickly.
Question 7 applies here. Though these programs involve effort, they do not require you to get another traditional job. In fact, working these programs may help you not only enhance your income, but also may help you grow as a person.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
Moss recently surveyed more than 300 families, age 55 and older, about happiness and retirement during the lockdown.
Many say the lockdown gave them a chance to “test drive” retirement, and they loved it, he writes.
Some 26 percent would adjust their post-lockdown life permanently after the pandemic, keeping it much the same as it was during the lockdown, he writes.
For some, though, the pre-lockdown activities, such as gatherings, eating out, traveling etc., will be too much of a temptation to resist.
So what’s it been like for you? Regardless about how eager you are to return to “normal,” that “normal” will change. We don’t know exactly to what extent it will change, but it will change. As we wait for those changes, we must take whatever precautions necessary to stay healthy, safe and still enjoy life.
Peter