June 12, 2020
T he C olumbia P ress
Senior
Moments
with Emma Edwards
7
Financial Focus
with Adam Miller
When abnormal becomes normal Has the coronavirus affected your retirement?
“Normal” should never be
taken for granted by any of us
again!
Maybe it’s time to take out
the list of things we’re thank-
ful for and add to it; take ac-
tion.
Bake a pie. Make a batch
of cookies. Realize you can
get out of the house with so-
cial distancing and mask and
gloves.
Before I got my hair cut
the other day, a greeter sani-
tized my hands, took my tem-
perature and asked me a few
questions.
Of course, I had my mask
on, too. It was a good start to
my week of positive things.
But I can’t get my hair cut
every day, so what else? I
proceeded to increase my
time spent visiting by phone
or computer.
Next, Amazon sent me a
new Debbie McComber fic-
tion book to read myself
to sleep with at night. Talk
about books, I just remem-
bered what I forgot last week:
“Can’t Remember What I
Forgot,” by Sue Halpern.
We needn’t worry, says my
doctor, until we actually can’t
remember what we forgot.
Another item I’m thankful
for is all the amazing boxes of
food I received over the past
few months. So thankful.
There’s also the joy of shar-
ing them with my neighbors.
And they share with me, too.
Yes, there is so much to be
thankful for these days.
A good exercise is to see
what the Bible says about
thankfulness. That was an-
other hour well spent.
Statistics have always fas-
cinated me and I’m thankful
I have more time to spend
looking things up.
One item stressed almost
ad nauseam these days is that
we shouldn’t touch our faces
during this crisis.
I’ve learned from a few re-
ports that in a 24-hour day,
the average person touches
their face 384 times. Yikes!
No wonder the experts say
not to touch your face.
If we think about it, the
eyes, nose and mouth are
our most vulnerable entry-
ways for not only COVID-19
but many other adversarial
germs.
The Merriam-Webster dic-
tionary defines germs as mi-
croorganisms that cause dis-
ease.
Those of us who are moms
remember telling our lit-
tle ones to keep their hands
away from their faces.
Maybe we were smarter
than the kids now give us
credit for?
See, thinking about all of
this, you are not bored or
even feeling lugubrious at a
time such as this.
One last item I recent-
ly learned is that pork and
beans are actually cooked in
the can with a large piece of
pork.
After being heated during
processing, that piece of pork
melts down to the size you
see in the can as its flavor has
permeated the beans. I think
I’ll open a can for lunch to-
day!
A few more ideas include
calling a friend to say, “I’ve
bean missing you.”
Better yet, send out some
thank you or thinking of you
cards.
It’s sure to pull both of you
out of the dumps.
Recent market volatility
has affected just about every-
body’s financial and invest-
ment situations. So, if you
were planning to retire soon,
will it be possible?
Of course, the answer de-
pends somewhat on your
employment situation. With
so many people’s jobs being
affected by the coronavirus
pandemic, your retirement
plans may also have been
thrown into confusion.
But assuming your employ-
ment is stable, what adjust-
ments in your financial and
investment strategies might
you need to make for your re-
tirement?
Here are a few areas to con-
sider, and some questions to
ask:
Retirement goals – Now is
a good time to review your
retirement goals and assess
your progress toward achiev-
ing them.
You may want to work with
a financial professional to de-
termine whether the current
environment has materially
affected your goals or if you
need to make modest adjust-
ments to stay on track.
Retirement lifestyle – You
probably created an invest-
ment strategy with a partic-
ular retirement lifestyle in
mind. Perhaps you’d planned
to become a world travel-
er when your working days
were over.
Of course, extensive travel
may not be possible in the
short term anyway. But once
we move past the pandemic,
your freedom to roam will
likely return.
If your investment portfo-
lio isn’t where you thought
it would be, can you -- or do
you want to -- adapt your life-
style plans? And can you ac-
cept the same flexibility with
other lifestyle goals, such as
purchasing a vacation home,
pursuing hobbies, and so on?
Tradeoffs – Based on your
retirement goals and your
willingness to adjust your re-
tirement lifestyle, you’ll want
to consider your options and
tradeoffs.
For example, would you
be willing to work more
College news
Morgan Postlewait of As-
toria earned a bachelor’s de-
gree in biology from George
Fox University in Newberg.
In addition, several local
students made the dean’s list
for spring semester. Students
must earn a 3.5 grade-point
average of higher.
Those students are Gabri-
elle Brinkman and Matthew
Burgher, both of Warrenton;
Niquilla Blodgett of Seaside;
Jackson Januik of Gearhart;
and Mitchell Geisler, Sarah
Lertora, Morgan Postlewait
and Henry Samuelson, all of
Astoria.
George Fox University is a
private Christian college that
offers degrees in more than
40 majors.
years than you had original-
ly planned in exchange for
greater confidence in your
ability to enjoy a comfortable
retirement lifestyle?
By working longer, you can
continue adding to your IRA
and 401(k) or similar retire-
ment plan, and you may be
able to push back the date you
start receiving Social Securi-
ty to receive bigger monthly
benefits.
SocialSecurity– You can file
for Social Security benefits as
early as 62, but you can get 25
to 30 percent more each year
if you wait until your full re-
tirement age, which is likely
between 66 and 67.
As you created your retire-
ment plans, you likely also
calculated when you would
take Social Security, but
you may need to review that
choice. If you postpone re-
tirement a few years, what
effect will that have on when
you choose to take Social Se-
curity and, consequently, the
size of your benefits?
You won’t want to make a
hasty decision, because once
you start taking Social Se-
curity, you can’t undo your
choice.
This article was written by
Edward Jones and submit-
ted by Adam Miller, financial
advisor at the Astoria office,
632A W. Marine Drive. To
reach him, call 503-325-7991.
Special columns in The Columbia Press
Every week: Senior Moments with Emma Edwards
Week 1: History in the Making
Week 2: Financial Focus with Adam Miller
Week 3: Off the Shelf by Kelly Knudsen
Final week: Mayor’s Message by Henry Balensifer