It wasn’t too long after the Covid Pandemic outbreak that the byproduct of Covid itself began to make its mark on our business here at Excelsior Wealth Partners. Not in the conventional sense, but rather the ancillary domino effect that came with what Covid had done to the economy and marketplace. Specifically, we started to notice that our clients were asking for assistance with early retirement planning. The calls that we were receiving from individuals that were not, yet our clients mirrored this. At first, we chalked this up to an anecdotal observation…. but then noticed that the labor force had seemed to change. People wanted out. They wanted to retire early. They cited various reasons such as:
- They were being asked to do more with less resources as some companies made budget cuts.
- Some did not like working alone or remotely.
- Some seemed to struggle with new technology like Zoom.
- The decrease in the work force and the inability of employers to hire caused remaining employees more stress.
It wasn’t long before we noticed that this local phenomenon was being reported nationally. This was not local at all. It had been deemed the "Great Resignation” by the psychologist Anthony Klotz. https://www.businessinsider.com/new-retirement-age-labor-market-great-resignation-boomers-golden-decade-2021-9 (Winck “Business Insider” Sept 2021)
The nation-wide rationale behind the early retirements were a little different than we had experienced, but conceptually similar:
- Workers didn’t want to risk catching coronavirus.
- Those that collected unemployment or were downsized, simply stayed unemployed in the form of an early retirement.
- The surging stock market pushed 401k and IRA balances to all time highs thereby allowing people the luxury to retire. (Winck “Business Insider” Sept 2021)
No matter how you chalk it up, American’s are retiring earlier. The days of 50 years at the same company being culminated with a gold-watch retirement party appear to be over.