What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About Retirement?

When the pandemic hit, I found myself with no childcare, no routine, and a sea of anxiety about how I was going to help my clients get through their challenges, do work and be a parent SIMULTANEOUSLY, lead my own business, support my employees, keep sane, stay well, cook three meals a day, effectively tag team with my husband, keep the kid occupied and off of my zoom calls…

You know. You’re there too.  Everyone has a struggle bus fueled by Covid-19.

I got to thinking about abrupt life changes and the struggle and adaptation they inevitably cause. I offer three thoughts about this pandemic and how to approach retirement.

1) WHAT’S ON YOUR THRIVE LIST?

Tara Newman offers a brilliant framework that Racheal Cook co-opted for her work with women business owners, and it’s the first thing we can learn about preparing for retirement from COVID-19:

What do you need — not just to survive, but thrive?

I realized REAL FAST that the normal things that it takes for me to thrive (let alone function) had been upended. 

The fact is, my needs weren’t going to change just because a virus entered our world. The routine was scrambled; they would have to be fulfilled in a different way. The challenge was to figure out how to make that happen. 

2) KNOW THAT LOGIC, UNFORTUNATELY, FOLLOWS EMOTION.

But first, I had to grieve the loss of what life used to be. It wasn’t until I was done being sad and angry (let’s be real, the depression stage still comes and goes) that I could look at this from a logical place.

Part of the frustration with this pandemic is that it’s so far out of the norm of planning, it pulled the rug out from under us. In stark contrast, while we know we can’t plan for everything about retirement, any good disaster recovery specialist will tell you 40% pre-planning for an event is better than none at all. That might be just enough to help us let go of our work lives and look forward to our future lives.

As a retirement plan advisor, I’ve seen employees gung ho about retiring go blank-faced when I say, what do you plan to do and how will you spend your time? 

I’ve also seen retirees struggle significantly out of the gate, having to unexpectedly mourn the loss of the life and the identity that they had, not realizing how much their identity was tied to work. 

The fact is, work and the work environment fills some of your Thrive List, and you may not be aware to what extent. We’re all learning that lesson now in this work-from-home phase. As we debate keeping work-from-home policies, we know there just is no substitute for the relationships formed around the water cooler.

We had no ability to anticipate COVID-19, and thus we are stuck grieving our pre-COVID lives and muddling through decisions on top of grief.  Remember, logic follows after the emotional flood has receded. However, we CAN anticipate our retirement. Therefore, you can lessen some of the grief associated with moving on to that next phase of life by doing some planning and incorporating your Thrive List in advance.

3) RESILIENCY IS A MUSCLE.

When all planning fails and the life-changing event shows up, it’s important to recognize that resiliency is something that can be learned and cultivated. This is useful now, and if retirement comes on unexpectedly.

Psychologists tell us there are a number of things you can do to build resiliency. 

The first tip is from Falke and Goldberg’s framework from Struggle Well: Thriving in the Aftermath of Trauma. It starts with wellness practices to make sure you can respond (logic) rather than react (emotion). Self-regulation (Elite Performance consultant Tim Kight calls it the R Factor) is central to effective human functioning. It is our ability to direct our behavior and control our impulses so that we meet certain standards, achieve certain goals, or reach certain ideals. My take on this: wellness practices increase our capacity for dealing with the alligators near our boat. We can’t make good decisions or find a path forward when we’re emotionally flooded. That’s important now in this pandemic and will be in retirement. Build your capacity for alligators.

The second tip is to find your people. Henry and Stephens (1977) conclude that one of the core sociobiological drives in human beings is the drive to form groups for interpersonal support. Tedeschi and Calhoun’s work on Posttraumatic Growth describes service to others as the pinnacle of the journey from struggle to strength. Physical distance or not, you need your people. You need them now and you’ll need them in retirement, too.

The final tip for building resiliency is mindset. Your mindset has a huge impact on your ability to see a situation as a challenge (that can be overcome) or a trauma. Dr. George Everly, Jr. advises fostering active optimism and having a general expectation of success regardless of the adversity. This will take more effort for some of us.

Having the luxury of deciding how you spend your time later in life may sound daunting, but it’s something that can be planned for and does not have to be a traumatic event financially or emotionally, unlike this pandemic. Start putting some time and energy toward your Thrive List as a starting point. Cultivate relationships and think about how you’ll keep and form other strong ones in retirement. And of course, get your head right.

Have employees that aren’t sure how to bridge the gap from where they are to a happy retirement? Reach out; our education programs can address that.

You can read the full-length article here.

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Courtenay Shipley, CRPS, AIF, CPFA has a diverse background in the retirement plan industry providing a unique foundation for her clients in the areas of fiduciary responsibility, investment analysis, and participant education. During her career she has provided institutional investment consulting to qualified retirement plans, developed business strategy for a boutique third party administrator and recordkeeper, conducted over 9,000 education meetings to groups and individual employees, and served the nonprofit market.

Courtenay is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, and is licensed as an investment advisor representative (Series 66). She holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary? (AIF?) designation through the Center for Fiduciary Studies, the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS) designation from the American College of Financial Planning, the Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) from National Association of Plan Advisors, and the Certified Health Savings Advisor (CHSA) designation. Since 2015 she has been featured in the Financial Times Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisors annual list, named a Top Women Advisor All-Star by the National Association of Plan Advisors (2015, 2017-2019), and named a 2018 NAPA Young Gun: Top 75 under 40. Click here for award descriptions and criteria.