Life Moves On – 2020 Has Changed Us

Life Moves On? What do I mean?

What was very important to you a few years ago, may be less important now. Four years ago when I started this blog – early retirement, financial independence was innovative and new. The concept of stopping work, before you got to age 60 or 65, was so different. I remember once speaking to an ex-boss, who had just got an early retirement package, (the first I had ever heard of c1992) and his comment was – I am 58, and I get to spend the next 2 years on the golf course, on effectively a full two-thirds salary pension, instead of at work. What is there to complain about? Certainly, nothing from his point of view.

So as Life Moves On, our ability to change and flex is essential

Your Retirement Provision

Up until 2000, if you were lucky. You would have had 40 years of a steady job, and a guaranteed pension, based on your working life, no average salary pensions, or zero hour contracts. It still happens, just less often, in todays world. Life moves on, often with stunning speed.

Just imagine, you’re 56, you’re 10 years from retirement. (In UK retirement age is currently 66). Your pension scheme folds. You have to recover, and recover fast. If you earn a good salary, you have the option to cut expenses and save fast. If you’re on a low wage, the amount you can save is reduced, and in today’s low-interest rate, it will grow slowly. Your choices depend on what work you are in, what skills you have, but you may have to consider an additional job, be it driving an Uber, delivering fast-food. who knows, but you have to react. To do nothing, is not an option. Life Moves On.

Your employment

You suddenly find yourself laid-off, or furloughed, or your business is no longer sustainable. This year, so many people have had to face that. If you had planned ahead, and had a reserve fund, initially this was OK, but in the UK, with further restrictions suddenly being enforced, it might not be enough. Benefits / Universal Credit provides a tiny cushion. In Oct 2019, a 6 month emergency fund, seemed really comfortable, today in Nov 2020, many of those emergency funds will have vanished. Life Moves On.

Working from Home

Covid-19 has caused us all to question our lives. Employers have discovered that it is relatively easy to get the majority of their desk-based employees to work from home. People are enjoying it, certainly my son is, but they do miss out on the social side / brainstorming of physically meeting co-workers. But this is relatively easily overcome by 1 day a week in the office, or a few one-off meetings, on an ‘attend face to face if you can’ basis.

Now look round your city – how many office blocks are currently empty as people work for home? So businesses are now considering whether to sell those blocks, but who buys them – maybe they will be converted into residential space, as were many old warehouse were in the 1970/80’s. The local shops / restaurants who depended on the office workers for lunch, have instantly lost that trade, so they will have to change their business model to survive. This would have been unthinkable a year ago, but Life Moves On

Tourism / Travel

I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, a tourist centre. (Indeed much of Scotland is a tourist centre). It draws large numbers of visitors from around the world. It has been hugely impacted, by the almost instant collapse of tourism. It was so strange to see pictures of virtually empty streets, particularly around August, where normally the city centre is buzzing. Here it is in 2017.

The same can be said for many cities around the world. If you’re interested, a photographer, Emiliano Sánchez, got unrestricted access to the centre of Madrid during their total lockdown, his photography is stunning. Madrid without You. Having spent 2 months there in 2017, I really loved Madrid. It is so strange without people

So Edinburgh, like many others is starting to change. AirBNB apartments in the centre of town are now being rented by locals, at less than half the tourist rates, but the landlords are taking the pragmatic way forward – any money is better than none. At the same time the city council is deciding whether to restrict the number of short-term rentals are going to be permitted. I know Amsterdam has been doing this for some years. As a city, we had become far too dependent on the tourist dollars, our city geared mainly for tourists is starting to transform itself. Life Moves On.

At the same time, our assumption that we can just climb on a plane and go somewhere, at a drop of hat has been proven false.

My son lives in NZ.

• first of all, I need to get on a plane, but the numbers of companies still flying from UK to Australia and NZ has reduced, and those that still do, are running a very reduced service.
• Then the country has to let me in. Neither NZ or Australia are welcoming tourists
• Even if I do get in, I have to quarantine in a secure government-run hotel for 14 days.

So much as I would love to see my son, his wife and my lovely 11 month grandson – it won’t be any time soon. My basic assumption that I could jump on a plane and spend 3 or 4 months there, every year, in a rented apartment, has collapsed. It will be some time before I see this place again!

Cheap European flights may well be a thing of the past. Maybe I’ll need to rethink our concept of Slow Travel, our trips may become less frequent, but we may stay longer in one place, maybe 6 months not 2 months. Who knows? The cruise ship industry has certainly changed a lot too (as indeed, has the places the cruise ships used to visit. Life Moves On….

The Environment

Whether you believe in global warming or not, like many people, I was taken aback, on the satellite photos taken in February, as virtually the whole world shut down, on how much less environmental pollution there was. The lights were switched off across the world. Planes weren’t flying, factories weren’t working, people weren’t commuting, working in offices. This article in wikipedia has some interesting photographs, of the immediate impact in China of the lockdown.

So the question has to be, do we as a world, just want to restart where we left off? I doubt it. Time for some new thinking – Life Moves On

Shopping

Many of us love to wander around shops, trying on clothes, or just browsing. That whole experience has changed beyond belief. Physical shops are an endangered species. We have easily transferred our shopping to online, Jeff Besos and Amazon are the big winners here. (However, I still try where I can to order from a physical shop, and get the goods delivered. Yes, I have to pay for postage, but I would rather put the money in my local area where possible) But, regardless we have our needs satisfied at the click of a button, usually using that phone that is always in our hand. Unimaginable just 10 years ago. Life Moves On.

Even more changes to the physical centres of our cities. With many large retail shops shutting, offices reducing their physical footprints, reduced tourists, meaning many of our hospitality venues have closed permanently, that city centre is going to change beyond belief in the years to come. Life Moves On.

Home Delivery

This is one of the areas which has blossomed this year. Want food – many food agencies like Just Eat or Deliveroo, will deliver right to your door, any form of food you want. There are endless options for goods, not just Royal Mail (in the UK), Yahoo, DfS, Parcelhero, Hermes to mention a few. People using their cars, or white vans. Online shopping needs delivering! Supermarket delivery. Jobs have been increasing, not only delivery drivers, but staff ‘picking’ the purchases. Our local Asda has taken on 30 additional staff, just to complete the orders for online deliveries. Unfortunately these are lower waged jobs, but jobs nonetheless. Life Moves On.

What’s Next?

We know that we’re not at the end of the virus yet, it won’t be for some time to come. However, our world has changed in just a few months. We have to learn to live with this (or any other) virus. Simple things like improved personal hygiene, and good manners, such as not standing too close to someone else, made a big difference. Our hospitals are improving their infection control. (In some areas of the UK, hospital acquired infection account for 25% of the cases) Half our deaths have been in care homes for the elderly.

Many things that we took for granted just a year ago, have changed. As a retiree, I loved the plentiful cheap holiday flights, endless restaurant choices, so many different ways of spending our free time. With multiple lockdowns and quarantines the whole picture has changed. It will be interesting what 2021 brings!

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