The COVID-19 quarantine may provide investors the opportunity to test out the realities of retirement, according to Raymond James advisor Darren Coleman.
Coleman, of Coleman Wealth, who leads the largest cross-border wealth management team within Raymond James, told Wealth Professional about how the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will show individuals what it’s like to have additional time on their hands: “There's a whole daily discipline, a daily routine that all of us go through when we're working. When you retire, that all stops and it changes very quickly.”
At first, retirement can feel like vacation, but after not too long you can begin to feel stir crazy, and then realize your life has fundamentally changed.
Life at home is different when you have time. You have to figure out how to occupy those hours with new or old interests. And you have to be prepared to be spending more time around your family than you likely have in years.
Furthermore, there is the practical side. You have to start figuring out who can handle the manual tasks that come with property ownership, make sure you have a strong care plan in place, and figure out if there is family close by.
“Suddenly, what may have just been an academic thought for many people is now a reality that's today,” explained Coleman. “This is a fire drill; it's an experiment for how ready you are to spend more time at home. How ready are you to change up your tasks? Many people are discovering that they're not ready - they don't know how to spend time alone, they don't have any hobbies and maybe sitting on the couch watching TV for hours a day isn't the best idea.”
For many, the realities of the COVID-19 crisis and the economic turndown are forcing individuals to see what it is like to live with less cash on hand. That will become a reality when retirement rolls around. While we all want to spend our golden years on vacations to far flung golf courses, that kind of quest requires serious capital that not many will have.
Coleman explains that we should view this crisis as a “science experiment.” He suggests we look “five, 10, 20 years into the future of your retirement and think, this is what it feels like in many ways.” This is an opportunity for us to look at ourselves in the mirror and see if we will need something else to fill our time or maybe it’s an opportunity to see that we’ll need more capital to make it through retirement or to do the things we want to in retirement.
