How Has the Pandemic Changed Your Thoughts on Retirement (If At All)?

20 Comments

1. I definitely feel more carpe diem post-pandemic. We’re still saving, but I no longer think of an active retirement where I’m able to travel as a near guarantee the way I did pre-pandemic (not only because I might be disabled or dead, but also because there might be a global pandemic that shuts down travel for several years in my prime retirement years). My parents were an active 68 & 70 when the pandemic began and it was hard watching them see some of their last “good” years slip away. So we’ve upped our travel and experience budget considerably and are doing what we want to do now.

2. I had a very closed loved one die during the pandemic. Not from COVID, but because he became sick suddenly and needed to be admitted to the major medical center with an ICU, but they were full of COVID patients and never had room. So he died at the small hospital after waiting for the call to get transferred for weeks, which never came.

   I am much more in tune with my own health now, for the first time in my life. I finally am catching up on all the screenings and appointments I have put off for years. I am trying to get healthier. I realize that life is very fragile. Both my parents died before ever having a real retirement. I’d rather that not be me.

   So job is now not very important. I need good health insurance, and a job with meaning, but my ultra successful high stress prior career is no longer attractive to me. I will try to retire as soon as possible, and continue to volunteer. While I now want to live for today, I am grateful I was frugal in the past so I have more freedom to retire when I need/want to. That is lucky.

3. For a while during the shutdown, I was ready to retire and decided to do so (and I could do so and am “retirement age”). Then the pandemic dragged on, and I had been home for longer, and I realized that I am enjoying my work too much to retire. Now I am hybrid, and I am not clear when I will retire, but it won’t be this year.

4. The 2020 election and subsequent attack on the Capitol has had more impact on my retirement planning than the pandemic. I’m no longer sure how much longer our democracy will persist and we are trying to save more money in case we need to buy economic citizenship in another country and spend our later years living somewhere outside the United States. The pandemic came and has gone and life is more or less back to normal. The threats to our democracy that started with the 2016 election have persisted, and I just am not sure what will happen in the future. We’re making plans that our retirement won’t be happening in America, as we don’t plan to stay if the country descends into a fascist theocracy. Hard to know, though, when is too soon and when is too late, to get out.

   1. This is something we think about too, especially because we’re Jewish and it was only a couple generations ago that our family had to flee for our safety. My husband has a job that is in demand in other countries and he has a lot of close contacts in Scandinavia, so that would likely be our best option if we needed to leave. My mom is also eligible for British citizenship because her father was born there and I’ve been pushing her to get that taken care of. I don’t know with the EU-UK split if a British subject would be able to easily immigrate to Scandinavia, but at least we wouldn’t have an ocean between us.

      1. DBF (Jewish) and I have had this conversation, too. He has relatives in Japan and Zimbabwe that I guess we could stay with if we had to leave in a hurry.

         1. Zimbabwe? Really?…

            1. Yeah, I mean the US is not perfect by any means, and if I could wave a magic wand and move to New Zealand with no effort I’d probably do it. But some of these countries people are naming are clearly much worse than the US.

      2. Yes, us too. Both Jewish, one of us Israeli, so we would go there (assuming we could physically get there): if not, we would take what currency we could carry and go wherever we could get to. For a front row and beautifully written description of how recent the Holocaust was and how quickly it could happen again, strongly recommend “The Postcard.”

         1. Israel is substantially less democratic than the US, so if the concern is the collapse of democracy in the US, moving to Israel does not make much sense to me.

   2. I have no answers, but only chiming in to say I hear you. I think about this too: “Hard to know, though, when is too soon and when is too late, to get out.”

5. DH and I have both leaned way, way out since the pandemic. Family is more important to us now. We work to live not live to work- and that was not the case in 2019.

6. I had a second kid during Covid, so I’m basically living paycheck to paycheck during these day care years. Finally had my student loans forgiven but my spouse’s are private and not eligible for any forgiveness and we’re paying those, so I’m feeling a bit resentful (at both him and the system). Also resentful of child free people as they seem to vocalize themselves more. I want to tell them I don’t look down on them, I’m jealous of them!

   1. The daycare years pass quickly, you’ll get through it! And I know others here have had a different experience (certainly if you’ll need a nanny that’s $$$$) but for us the cost savings between daycare and elementary school were enormous. Like, $15k/year/kid different, even with paying for aftercare and summer camp.

      1. Ugh thank you. Not OP, but in simulate spot and so much of what I’m hearing has been “the cost will get eaten somewhere else once you’re done with daycare.” Nice to have a glimmer of hope.

         1. Yes, thank you! I’m not usually such a downer; today was rough, as sometimes I feel like a SAHM and full time employee during summer break. I appreciate the optimism.

7. I retired in February, about 2-3 years earlier than I had planned. Some of that is from the pandemic but also my husband died, same age as me – 64 – without ever having been able to enjoy retirement. Carpe diem is now my motto. A few years ago, my hero of a boss died at age 65, also having never enjoyed retirement.

   I had/have some regrets about abruptly retiring due to the stress of hubby’s cancer diagnosis and quick death, as I always expected retirement to be a celebration. But I have enough to live on and we saved money all those years, so I plan to enjoy every hour and every day.

   Prior to all this, I had finally started to complete training to be a certified coach and that along with consulting was to be my retirement activity. I planned to start that in 2025. (I couldn’t actually work as a coach or consultant while I was employed due to company/industry rules.) After realizing that I miss teamwork, being with and helping people, I’ve decided that I am going to coach because it is a positive activity in my life that brings joy – it’s not work.

   1. I am so sorry about your husband.

8. I was aggressively saving and planning for early retirement in four years, but the stress of inflation has made me feel like the target I had set is nowhere near enough. I’m really disheartened to feel like the goal I’m finally close to achieving is now really far out of reach, and I don’t know what amount of money would make me feel comfortable retiring anymore.

9. I’m 45 and thought I would/could work forever. I’m not sure if it’s a ‘carpe diem’ response to the pandemic, hormones (I have been going through menopause for about 2-3 years) or just the inconsiderate men that I have to work with, but I’m dreaming of retirement in a way that I had not expected to feel for another 20 years. I can’t afford to retire yet but I’m actively thinking about leaning out and next steps. For me that might include joining boards.

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