WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The COVID-19 shutdown and slow reopening has made some start to think about changing plans for retirement.
“ I don’t think retirement is going to be possible at this point,” says Rolando Chang Barrero, owner of The Box Gallery in West Palm Beach.
To keep his art gallery open, Barreo says he had to dip into retirement savings.
“It devastated anything I had needless to say I had to take out from the better stocks that were still strong,” Barreo says.
Independent financial planner, Dave Wentley says this is a time when plans for retirement need to looked at carefully.
“Right now it’s so unknown the uncertainty is so much people are questioning whether they can retire,” Wentley says.
“In 2008 I went through this quite a bit I had clients planning to retire and 2008 2009 2010 and they did put their plans on hold if they could, again what I would say is try to stay put if you can continue to work another year and feel better do so.”
Wentley adds that putting retirement off after age 67 can also increase Social Security payments offering a long term benefit.