Was COVID one of the best things to ever happen to you financially? (move, celebrate)
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Those who had high recurring/discretionary expenses (commuting, travel, dining-out, nail salon, dog grooming,...) likely had forced-savings, and thus feel more pecunious. Those who had the wisdom to buy houses in desirable markets, are getting amply rewarded.
Renters aren't so lucky. Neither are persons who were already frugal and whose shopping-habits haven't much been affected. Or persons whose equity portfolio leans towards "old economy" stocks or foreign stocks.
i got a big fat promotion. indirectly related to covid because the existing staff shortage where i work became worse when the pandemic hit. they were glad to have someone experienced (me) to bring into the job and i was happy with the promotion, so win win. i was considering retiring but will stay for another 3-4 years because my retirement is based on top 3 consecutive years of income. traveling less so saving some money there. i enjoy having an excuse not to travel actually. rent where i am has gone up less than it would have without the pandemic. landlord is happy to have me in the unit. i live a pretty simple life to begin with and don't spend much. i'm due for a new car here soon and will be able to pay cash. that feels good.
My wife is now permanently working from home and Covid/the summer of riots helped me to retire 8 years early with a much higher pension than expected. I was employed making almost as much as my previous job even before my banked vacation time ran out. After I retired, we promptly moved out of crappy NYC to a much cheaper suburb nearby.
Sometimes I feel bad saying it, but yes, Covid greatly improved our lives.
Like everything else in life, the Covid pandemic brought financial opportunities for some, a lot of grief for others. Sometimes, the two just balanced out so there was no net gain at all.
My husband lost his job and was unemployed for almost a year because his industry took a huge hit.
Fortunately severance pay plus pandemic assistance kept us afloat and we have no debt except for our house. But his new job had a 25% pay cut from his previous one. We can pay our bills and save a little but that's with keeping things tight (no eating out, vacations, etc). Our house value jumped 150k in that time but it doesn't really matter as we are not selling.
I think Covid created an even greater financial divide in this country. Those in higher-income sectors did very well. Many kept jobs, got raises, watched their 401k's jump, saw huge gains in their home equity all the while saving money by working from home. Meanwhile those on the low end lost their jobs and saw their rent skyrocket. Even though other jobs opened up with higher minimum wages that didn't counteract the huge inflation in gas and food costs and even things like used car prices.
It takes money to make money so those on the low end who don't own homes or have investments or even 401k's saw no gain in any area of their financial life. I see people on my local community boards who want to go back to work but they can't find affordable childcare as Covid reduced that availability.
I think this greater financial divide will cause even more unrest as those on the lower end simply refuse to accept this inequality.
Financially it has been great for us. I was lucky (not smart, lucky) in that one day in March 2020 I went to Costco and saw people buying 8 cases of bottled water and doing really stupid things (like they were going to shut off the water because of this). I went home and sold everything in all of my retirement/brokerage accounts. It just happened to be the day before the first big drop. I bought back in when everything was down 20% (yea, I got hit by the 2nd big drop, but still can't complain). I also live in an area outside of major city where everyone wants to buy (the house across the street sold for 25% more in Jan 2021 compared to Jan 2020, the owner's job went totally remote, so he moved from NJ to FL). The housing market has flattened out, but I feel it will stay up a little. I am in my late 40's and this cut 2-3 years off of my remaining working years.
Our home values are way up, but I can't say that covid had much to do with that. It's the influx of boomers retiring and the results of years of marketing that our community has done (too much of it IMO), so we have low supply and high demand. We have saved money on travel that we were unable to do in the pandemic, but we spent just that much more on home renovations that we might, or might not, have done in the absence of covid. And the costs of those upgrades is WAY higher (probably 2X) than it would've been due to covid material shortages.
The one place that we definitely are ahead is our vacation rental income. When covid hit, people abandoned hotel travel and there was a big increase in private home/cabin/AirBnB type travel. Our gross doubled due to incredibly increased rentals, and due to the high demand, rental rates were upped via a demand/supply algorithm used by most of the rental property managers. In addition, the high returns for owning a property in the area drove demand by wannabe investors in the rental market, and now there is no supply and super high demand to purchase properties like ours. So our rental has doubled in value in the less than 4 years we've owned it. It's tempting to sell now, but we do enjoy the monthly income, so it's a toss-up as to whether we sell and invest the profit elsewhere, or just keep on like we are and hope the bubble doesn't burst too badly. We can always just keep renting it until the next great time to sell. This is a market that can be timed successfully.
Last edited by TheShadow; 11-22-2021 at 10:51 AM..
The increase in housing prices is a mixed bag. For someone who's been planning to downsize it has likely been a good thing. For people planning to stay in their current home it's largely a nothingburger.
We'll move somewhere else when we retire in a few years. For us the home price increases are neutral to slightly negative. Sure, our home is worth more than two years ago (50% more by the Redfin estimate, fwiw), but prices are also higher anywhere we might move to, and higher prices mean a bigger tax liability upon sale (ymmv on that one, of course).
The increase in housing prices is a mixed bag. For someone who's been planning to downsize it has likely been a good thing. For people planning to stay in their current home it's largely a nothingburger.
I have been on pension for 20 years, and this year my wife and I both qualified to begin Social Security benefits. [but that had no connection to the plandemic].
As retirees, we have gotten connected to a wide range of social groups and their activities. Due to the plandemic, most of those groups have all but shutdown. So no more potlucks. We were doing 4 or 5 potlucks a month, but now, nothing.
I am not invested in the market.
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