If you think about it, the best position to be in during this ongoing pandemic is to be… retired. Yes, there are lots of bad things, and irritating things, and unsettling things related to pandemic life that affect all of us, but if you had to make a choice, being retired is a pretty good position to be in during these unparalleled times.
Of course, if you were forced into retirement because of the pandemic you will be in a totally different situation. Those of us who have been retired for a while had the good fortune of being able to plan for it ahead of time, and we have had time to learn to deal with the various aspects of retirement life.
What’s Bad
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way before we launch into what I consider to be the retirement-positive aspects. First and foremost, we are in, or close to being in, the most at risk group for extended illness or even death it we were to catch the virus. Not a pleasant thought. Secondly, those of us who are retired and still living in our own homes have found it to be a pretty isolating experience. Before we figured out that we could connect with everyone via FaceTime and Zoom we did not have a whole lot of interpersonal connections going on – except with our loved ones who we were sharing our living space with… actually, I’ll leave that up to you to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing, or both of those things. 🙂
And, just like everyone else, we retired folks had to worry about how we were going to access groceries and all the other necessities of daily life. And, more so than any other group, we had our travel plans interfered with. We retirees are in the prime travel years of our lives, and that has been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Poor us.
The Love-goddess and I weren’t directly impacted because our own travel plans had already been cancelled due to my illness. However, all of our friends had to scurry home from their winter vacation locations all over the world to get back to the safety of the Canadian health system. I suppose no other group should really feel all that bad about our travel plans being messed up. But, we will miss getting out there big time.
I Am Going to Sugar-coat Things
Be pre-warned that as I go through my argument, I will be sugar-coating things. We, and all of our friends, are fairly affluent, educated, professional individuals, in stable relationships, and still living in our own homes. We are all aware that we are living in very privileged circumstances.
There are many, many of our fellow Canadians who are not as well positioned as we are in retirement. What I have to say really only applies to folks in similar positions to ours, realizing that there are many retired Canadians who are not getting through the pandemic in as comfortable a situation as we are. But, most of us are doing the best we can to help others we know who are less fortunate than ourselves.
The Reasons
Easier to Self-isolate
One of the most obvious benefits of being retired during the pandemic is that it is much easier for us to self-isolate. Our time is very flexible, and we have the ability to choose when and where we do things. We are not driven by the needs of others. We can hunker down as necessary.
No Work-Related Issues
The other immediate benefit, if we, indeed, are fully retired, is that we have no work-related issues to worry about. We are not having to worry about working in isolation and remotely. We don’t have to worry about whether our technological systems at home are robust enough to allow us to work to the best of our ability. We don’t have to worry about developing new technological skills to communicate with our fellow employees. We don’t need to worry about finding a new job at the worst time possible if we lose our current one. We are now officially off the hook for all work-related matters.
No Child Related Issues
We are also off the hook for all child related matters as well. At least we should be at this point. We don’t have to worry about homeschooling our children while we’re trying to work remotely. We don’t have to worry about keeping our children entertained during lockdown. We don’t have to worry about keeping them safe when we’re out in public.
When I say all of this, I realize there are probably some folks who are retired, and are really enjoying being at home with their kids, but I have to report that I am officially passed that point. 🙂 The one possible big drawback in this area is that we don’t get to see our grandchildren as much as we would like to. Nor do we get to help their parents bear the burden of all-day daycare.
Reduced Expenses
Many of us will have discovered that our expenses both in the home and outside of the home have been greatly reduced while we sit at home twiddling our thumbs. For example, the cost of driving has been reduced significantly. Not only are we driving way less, the price of gas during the worst part of the pandemic plummeted to levels we have not seen in years.
In Ontario, the province in which we live, the provincial government reduced what they were charging for Hydro to ease our financial burden during the crisis. And, quite simply, we have not been able to go out and attend movies, eat in restaurants, shop, or travel to the extent we did before the pandemic took hold. Our expenses have been reduced to the absolutely required minimum in most cases.
Senior Hours
Because we retirees are in the most vulnerable group, when retail operations began to reopen, many offered special shopping hours exclusively for seniors. These were most often very early in the morning, but that was fine for us, because we could go out and do what we needed to do at any time of the day, mostly without restrictions.
Plus, we retired folks have tremendous flexibility in the timing of when we do our necessary shopping. We are not limited to lunch-hour, after work, or on weekends, like most working people. I don’t know how many times I have checked the “Popular Times” feature in Google Maps to see how busy a local business is at some specific time during the day, or when the least busy hours occur. Just like the old baseball expression, this allowed us to “hit ‘em where they ain’t”.
I would be remiss if I did not mention what a great job Canadian retailers have done to ensure the safety of their customers. Most stick rigidly to the “thou shall wear masks while in our store” protocol, along with regulating the number of customers allowed in the store, how goods are handled, and how they direct individuals to maintain social distancing. Job well done people.
Online Shopping, Curb-side Pick-up, and Touch-free Home Deliveries
And speaking of shopping, whole new ways of doing this quickly popped up during the pandemic. And because of our flexible schedules, most of these most directly benefitted retirees.
Like many others we have been doing our fair share of online shopping. This is in part due to the fact that businesses of all sizes ramped up their online retailing capabilities. Additionally, we have frequently availed ourselves of curbside pick-up for groceries and general retail purchases. Pulling up in front of a store and having an employee wheel out your purchases and throw them in your trunk still feels like a very safe way to do your shopping. Once we got over the potential threat of receiving packages handled by others at our home, we have been regularly ordering touch free restaurant delivery. Often, we do this to simply because it breaks up the monotony of all the home cooking we are doing.
OAS Bonus Cash
Those of us who are currently receiving OAS even managed to get a little extra cash thrown our way during the pandemic. The government was worried that we might be spending more money than normal to cover new costs like grocery and parcel deliveries… we are the demographic that tends to vote more than any other after all… tee-hee. (Elections Canada: 78.8% for ages 65–74 in 2015).
I’m sure for many retired Canadians the $300 was a welcome, albeit small addition to their income streams. For those of us who didn’t particularly need the money, as I have previously written about, we ploughed it back into needy causes that would get it into the hands of people who needed it more.
All-in-all, a win-win situation.
Speaking of Finances
And speaking of finances, we retired folk may have been in the best possible financial position to weather the pandemic. First of all, we weren’t working so we didn’t have to worry about losing our jobs and incomes. Secondly, most of us probably reduced our exposure to equities long before this point and weren’t terribly negatively impacted by the big market drop in March. And finally, many of us probably figured out that this was a good time for us to reduce any debt we might’ve had because, more than any other group, we weren’t going out and spending. Debt is absolutely the last thing you want hanging over your head in retirement.
Mental Health and Substance Abuse
The other area where we appear to be making out better than younger folks is with the state of our mental health and substance abuse. I was a little concerned that this would be an area in which we not might not be doing as well as other demographic groups. Apparently, that is not the case. Most of the sites that I had a brief look at indicated that both in Canada and the United States younger people were having more mental health issues around the pandemic than we older folks.
From a CTV news report:
“Younger Canadians are more likely to report feelings of heightened anxiety, the survey found. Forty-three per cent of those aged 18 to 34 reported higher anxiety, compared with 27 per cent of those aged 55 and older. Those with children at home were 41 per cent more likely to report feelings of anxiety.”
And, from the Hartford healthcare organization in the United States:
“The pandemic, according to the data, affects people ages 18 to 29 more, with 42 percent reporting anxiety and 36 percent depression. The second most-affected age group was people 30 to 39, with 34 percent reporting anxiety and 28 percent depression. Older people, who are more at risk for catching and dying from COVID-19, were far less likely to report emotional reactions. Sixteen percent of people age 70 to 79 and 11 percent over 80 reported anxiety; 12 percent age 70 to 79 and 9 percent over 80 said they felt depressed.”
A survey conducted by Nanos research concluded that the 55+ group was less inclined to change their drinking habits than any other group. Apparently, it was individuals in the 35 to 54 age group who were ramping up their drinking while in lockdown.
Cannabis use generally demonstrated the same pattern. The 55+ group was least inclined to change their cannabis habits. But in this instance, it was the 18 to 34-year-old individuals who were indulging more.
The Retiree Network
Another small, but perhaps important reason for our better mental health is our connectedness with one another. I don’t know about you, but we are constantly sharing ideas between ourselves and our friends, who are also retired, about how to best address our situation; how to handle outdoor gatherings with friends, the best times to shop at certain stores, how to safely handle package deliveries, helping one another sort out the use of new communication technologies, and in general helping one another to keep ourselves busy and productive. We have lots of free time to help one another, and (to be biased about it), are likely doing so more than any other group.
Yes, I am Being Overly Positive
I did say I was going to sugar-coat things. And yes, I am being overly positive when I suggest that there are a multitude of reasons why being retired during the pandemic is the best point in the life cycle to find one’s self. As I stated in my previous article, winter is coming and it will probably be challenging and very unpleasant for all of us, even retirees. When we are all wallowing in the depth of it all let’s not forget that if you’re retired you have a whole lot less to worry about than most folks in this country. Especially if you are relatively healthy and in a reasonable place financially.
Those of you who are in the same position that we are in may well agree with what I have said. But, if you are struggling financially because of extra costs being forced upon you by the pandemic, or if you are experiencing mental health issues for whatever reason, what I have to say is not going to be terribly reassuring.
If you do find yourself in either of these situations it clearly provides an additional challenge. It is important that you identify the groups and agencies that can provide help and seek them out. And, if you have friends who are in a better position then you find yourself, don’t be afraid to ask them for help. If they are thoughtful, caring friends they will probably be very receptive if you reach out for help. We retirees can all get through this if we stick together.
