How long to wait

[NYEXPAT]

We have gone back to normal lives now that our lock down ended a few weeks ago. New normal includes, masks, handwashing,SD. We hired a full time live-in cook/nanny/housekeeper to take care of all meals,disinfecting etc to allow us to enjoy our family time more!

 

[Dtail]

We have gone back to normal lives now that our lock down ended a few weeks ago. New normal includes, masks, handwashing,SD. We hired a full time live-in cook/nanny/housekeeper to take care of all meals,disinfecting etc to allow us to enjoy our family time more!

Nice to hear. Not in the good ole USA.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Nice to hear. Not in the good ole USA.

No, not in the USA,yet! My wife was up there two days ago getting her Green card, SS#,open a bank account and get some CC's.

We had planned to move up this month, but with Covid, social unrest,elections etc. We have put it off for now. Wife can now stay out of the USA for up to a year if necessary.

 

[LRDave]

That's not a bad drive that time of year...did you have that discussion at all? Everyone has their own comfort level. Just asking, as the fly/drive discussion is picking up a lot of interest.

We did consider it and it may well come back into play as we get closer to the event.

It is 4 more hard days of driving and two more nights lodging somewhere.

Tough decision....

 

[tmm99]

No, not in the USA,yet! My wife was up there two days ago getting her Green card, SS#,open a bank account and get some CC's.

We had planned to move up this month, but with Covid, social unrest,elections etc. We have put it off for now. Wife can now stay out of the USA for up to a year if necessary.

So your wife just flew back from the US? Does she have to quarantine in Peru?

 

[NYEXPAT]

So your wife just flew back from the US? Does she have to quarantine in Peru?

Yes, she is here in a hotel for five days and needs to pass three rapid tests!

Friends of ours (US citizens) came on the same plane (coming for the reopening of MP) and they must also quarantine for 5 days, which is down from the 14 days last month.

 

[tmm99]

Yes, she is here in a hotel for five days and needs to pass three rapid tests!

Wow, pretty serious which is good. I live in Canada, but I don't think the govnt follow up on the quarantine like your country.

 

[Sojourner]

We are betting on a vaccine by the end of the year. In anticipation of that, we booked an 18 day trip to Kauai in early March.

While a vaccine by Christmas would be an incredibly wonderful gift for the world, that timeline seems unrealistically optimistic. Even if one of the more promising vaccine candidates gets through Phase III trials completely successfully, it will be sometime next year before any of us regular folk have clinical access to it.* But I do think it's quite likely that more effective treatments will be discovered and developed by next March (presumably before an effective vaccine is widely available), so your big trip to Hawaii will probably be much safer by then than it would be now.

*According to this panel of experts, we're about 1/3 of the way down the path to having an effective, widely available vaccine. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/health/2020/06/30/covid-vaccine-progress-widely-available-coronavirus-expert-panel/3242395001/ The panel didn't provide a consensus estimate on when a vaccine will be ready, but two panelists were quoted as saying "middle of next year" as a best guess.

 

[pacergal]

We take it day by day.
No travel now, only day trips. Do grocery online and curbside pickup. Drive thru or curbside pick up for restaurants we like.
We do have a small "family circle" whom we see every week to two weeks. Limited risk factors for now, will change when/if school is in session. So we will re evaluate visiting at that time.
I personally believe this corona virus will be around for a long time, and think if a vaccine works, it will be more like an annual flu vaccine, rather than one and done. At that point, we will assess risk for more travel, etc. like we do with influenza. We tend to do Limited travel during flu season anyway.
Probably will always continue with masking with out in public. I think/hope that becomes more normalized for all in the future--would definitely help with decreasing flu transmission I think.
No easy or simple answers. And "future" means getting older, so increased risk with covid anyway. So we will mitigate risk as much as we can in all of our decisions.
Not sure "normal" in the past will be "normal" in the future for us.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Wow, pretty serious which is good. I live in Canada, but I don't think the govnt follow up on the quarantine like your country.

Yeah, they take it very serious here and we were shut down completely by mid March. Just beginning phase 2 reopening now.

 

[MichaelB]

<mod note> A discussion ranking COVID fatalities with other causes of death quickly morphed into one questioning the legitimacy of COVID death reports. All the posts were removed. This is another COVID related topic it seems we cannot discuss without moving quickly to extreme views that do not meet the standards set in the COVID forum sticky https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f55/new-area-for-covid-19-topics-readme-102567.html

 

[MuirWannabe]

Yea, I just wanted to know folks thought processes around how long they’d be willing to wait to get back to all of their retirement goals/bucket list. I appreciate all the on topic replies. They’ve been interesting to me. Particularly those who don’t just say how long their willing to wait, but those who elaborate on their why’s.

It’s a subject I’m thinking through more and more. As I said in an earlier post. My retirement biological clock is ticking. And the things on my list are not happening.

Thanks.

 

[rodi]

MuirWannabe - I hear you on the retirement time clock ticking... We're the same age and I had planned to do a lot of travel before it became less fun/too hard. Added to that my husband is 9.5 years older than me... He's in great shape - but for how long? We want to do our more active trips sooner. (Machu Picchu/Galapagos, etc.) Covid is delaying this.

We've been having more and more discussion (in part prompted by this thread) on buying a van conversion if this continues another 6 months - so we can do domestic travel in a covid safe way.

 

[MuirWannabe]

MuirWannabe - I hear you on the retirement time clock ticking... We're the same age and I had planned to do a lot of travel before it became less fun/too hard. Added to that my husband is 9.5 years older than me... He's in great shape - but for how long? We want to do our more active trips sooner. (Machu Picchu/Galapagos, etc.) Covid is delaying this.

We've been having more and more discussion (in part prompted by this thread) on buying a van conversion if this continues another 6 months - so we can do domestic travel in a covid safe way.

That’s interesting. DW and I have been discussing similar things. Maybe renting some type of RV first, before jumping into a purchase. But we’ve heard and read some that too many are already doing this. The RV rental market is swamped out, and the RV parks at NP’s and SP’s are booked solid. So, not sure yet. I could do the van conversion thing, but not sure DW would go for it. Maybe.

Sure wish we lived closer to the mountains. But north Dallas isn’t close to anything. I’m envious more than ever, of those who can drive nearby or walk out their backdoor for a nice mountain hike. More than ever I’m truly just Muir Wannabe.

 

[camfused]

Us too. Every show in our season tickets has already been cancelled or postponed until December. We’re hoping that will hold, and we’ll be comfortable going back then too. Don’t know. I wonder how long theater, orchestra, ballet can survive with zero revenue? Fortunately many have large corporate and individual benefactors?

I am kind of on the other end of that. I am in an orchestra, and a quartet, and we are unable to meet to rehearse, nor to give concerts. My two passions are music and travel. Cant do either (at least not in the same way as before). I am SO frustrated!

 

[audreyh1]

I am kind of on the other end of that. I am in an orchestra, and a quartet, and we are unable to meet to rehearse, nor to give concerts. My two passions are music and travel. Cant do either (at least not in the same way as before). I am SO frustrated!

I bet! A while back I read about how far instruments can spread aerosols, and the flute blew other woodwinds/brass away, by a long shot. It was shocking.

So avoid flautists?

 

[mitchjav]

So, this is not the retirement many of us envisioned.

So, I ask again. How long would you wait?

Depends what it is - definitely can wait for anything that involves large crowds, indoor dining, travel (except for day trips by car). Other things we're already doing, like limited outdoor dining in spacious venues.

We're in the process of buying a new home in a 55+ community - the search process was stalled by Coronavirus - but resumed early this month. We had planned a multi-day trip to real-estate search, but instead we opted for no hotel and multiple day trips. We are/will be allowing real-estate folks and workers to help prep our house for sale into our current home, but are requiring masks and SD. There's enough stress selling a home and buying a new home, let alone during a pandemic .. but this is one aspect of our life we didn't want to put on hold.

 

[harllee]

I am kind of on the other end of that. I am in an orchestra, and a quartet, and we are unable to meet to rehearse, nor to give concerts. My two passions are music and travel. Cant do either (at least not in the same way as before). I am SO frustrated!

My Church choir, handbells and other musicians are able to some how practice by online by something called Acapella and we get music from them by Zoom, its pretty neat. Have your music groups tried online practice/performance?

 

[camfused]

^^^ We have, via Zoom, but the lag makes it impossible to live play together. I'll check out this Acapella, thanks.

 

[audreyh1]

My Church choir, handbells and other musicians are able to some how practice by online by something called Acapella and we get music from them by Zoom, its pretty neat. Have your music groups tried online practice/performance?

I always wondered whether delays, although not normally noticeable, would interfere with performance via Zoom or FaceTime, or whatever.

^^^ We have, via Zoom, but the lag makes it impossible to live play together. I'll check out this Acapella, thanks.

Oh,I see you had already answered my question. Thanks!

 

[EastWest Gal]

Latency will always be a problem, especially using WI-FI It’s good for a laugh though.

We’ve tried Zoom, Discord, Jamkazam. Not tried Acapella.

I’ve participated in multi recordings-everyone submit their recording, played along with a click track and a good recording (such as USMC Band), and someone blends them. DH has been doing it for his big band.

One group I’m in is trying rehearsing by play-along through Discord. It’s not bad because we chat before and after. DS puts in a click track using Audacity so we all know when to start. It’s also nice playing along with a professional recording.

 

[Retired Expat]

I’ve got a thought experiment/hypothetical. Interested in others thoughts.

How long are you willing to wait for Covid to be conquered before returning to doing things you enjoyed pre-Covid? Things like restaurant dining, travel, seeing family, sports, conferences, stadium events, casinos, etc.

Like most others on this board, I worked hard and looked forward to retirement for years. Now, in my 3rd year, we have this situation. A vaccine is not guaranteed, and the timeline on a vaccine is certainly not known. Therapeutics may be slow in coming, and again for really effective medicines who knows how long. So, this is not the retirement many of us envisioned.

So, I ask again. How long would you wait? Forever, assuming no vaccine or extremely helpful meds? 6 months regardless of vaccines or meds? How long, before you might say ‘to heck with it, I’m gonna start living my full retirement life again and let the chips fall where they may’.

To some extent for me, this seems a bit like market timing. I’m willing to wait another 6 months or so. But what happens if in 6 months we aren’t really any closer to it being conquered. Go all in or wait another 6 months. Pretty soon at that rate I’m not able to do many of the things I hope to do in retirement.

Hope this question makes sense.

I am hoping that along with the development of effective vaccines they will develop a cheap and super fast, ultra reliable home test for COVID-19. Since you are only negative as of your last test and could be infected on the way home from the test.

Imagine if there was a simple test like a finger prick for glucose that could be done at the entrance to every movie theater, concert etc?

Otherwise since I want to enjoy a long retirement I am willing to wait a good long time

 

[Midpack]

I am hoping that along with the development of effective vaccines they will develop a cheap and super fast, ultra reliable home test for COVID-19. Since you are only negative as of your last test and could be infected on the way home from the test.

Several people in the White House are tested daily, and they have results in 5 minutes. There are several quick tests out already, and they will only get better and more widely available. Many pro athletes are being tested daily now too with fast results.

For controlling transmission, it’s useless to test and then wait a week for results as many still are - as you clearly know.

 

[audreyh1]

I am hoping that along with the development of effective vaccines they will develop a cheap and super fast, ultra reliable home test for COVID-19. Since you are only negative as of your last test and could be infected on the way home from the test.

Imagine if there was a simple test like a finger prick for glucose that could be done at the entrance to every movie theater, concert etc?

Otherwise since I want to enjoy a long retirement I am willing to wait a good long time

I think there is a very accurate spit saliva test for at home or at work testing and results. That would be ideal. But I don’t know when it might be available or even if there is the funding to make it available. Unfortunately DH couldn’t locate the article he read that was in his stock news feed.

 

[P.S.]

How long are you willing to wait for Covid to be conquered before returning to doing things you enjoyed pre-Covid? ... So, I ask again. How long would you wait?

...To some extent for me, this seems a bit like market timing. I’m willing to wait another 6 months or so...

It’s like the marshmallow experiment, except for adults. And it’s real life, not an experiment.

If 6 mo is the absolute deadline (Dec ‘20), then one might as well get on with it, as I suspect in 6 mo time, the situation will be not much different (though possibly more dire). I agree that change and adaptation is a challenge, unpleasant and frustrating.