If you are concerned, you should keep paying them anyway until things are back to normal (you may be already doing this but this is for general). That’s what many are trying to do, and they have much less. Action speaks louder than words. We paid mine 4 times in advance + 3 months of her rent because she was telling us that everyone cancelled her.
The thing with this type of expenses, it’s not really an additional cost to one’s normal monthly budget. Sure the house isn’t as clean, but I can always have my kids to blame.
Our cleaners come on Fridays, so I texted ours (with Venmo payment, as we had been doing all along) that I am keeping up with vacuuming fine, but am ashamed to admit I really don’t know how to mop hardwood floors. Shame on me?. She chuckled with me and said she is looking forward to coming back.
She has been a good worker all along, and I’m sure she will gladly go back to all of her clients, but I have a sense that she will show her appreciation to those customers who continued to pay her during these miserable times. Our income will surely be affected (as it probably should) and our assets have been rocked, but we are still so much better off than our landscaper (gave him some marginally necessary work today), handy man, cleaners, etc. This is a time for compassion, especially if you still have your job.
The gov’t money will be appreciated and I hope everyone has been filing income taxes, paying FICA, etc. Many of these gig workers don’t routinely file, and it will hurt them when it comes to proving loss of income.
@IxnayBob LOL don’t you have something to sweep the floor? I find sweeping it first before mopping will help.
But as for mopping, I got the whole work out done by the time I finished. I cut half of the bath towel, soak in water and some cleaning stuff, then knees and hands on the floor one square foot at a time. I had maroon 5 on while cleaning, and that helped too
@IxnayBob, if you’re serious you can buy a Bona Hardwood Floor Premium spray mop on Amazon, or Bed Bath and Beyond and I’m sure elsewhere. I highly recommend.
@Nhatrang , we use vinegar on our hardwood floors, but I don’t know at what concentration.
The floors are pretty clean from vacuum, but mopping I’d probably get the area rugs wet, so I will leave that to the professionals. Floors look pretty darned good if you don’t look too closely ?
Already did that, I asked D19 to clean the entire basement, vacuum, bathroom, organizing, everything. I would be nice and give her $30 bucks, or get sushi delivered for lunch. She farmed it out to her brother for 10 bucks lol. And the boy was so excited until he realized he got screwed lol. Never a dull moment in our household.
I plan to retire when both of my kids are done with college (I would be 55) so i can focus on my non-profit organization. But with the stock market like this, don’t think it’s gonna happen.
Has your retirement plan changed because of this crisis?
@Nhatrang, my retirement plans have (likely) changed. My kids have all graduated from college and are launched “well enough.” They have no student loans to worry about, so I feel mostly “done” with them. But the stock market crash is making me rethink retirement, which was tentatively scheduled for next March. If the market goes back up to 26K or so, I will likely retire. If not, I may work another year or so.
I don’t quite understand what you mean regarding retirement date.
a. Does this mean you will sell everything and go to cash if the Dow hits 26k by March 2021?
b. If you won’t sell everything when the Dow hits 26k, what makes you think markets won’t fall right back down after you retire next March?
We will be paying the cleaning lady and the PT/trainer.
I will say that this the Coronavirus is slowing down my business, but I don’t think it will change my retirement. It will cost some money as we will be carrying an extra house for several months or more (I had planned to close in July but I’m guessing it will be months thereafter. I wonder what pricing will be like. But, I think the house we bought is magical and will be a great place to work and love when all the construction is done.
My dh retired two years ago at the age of 55. Our situation is probably somewhat unique in that he had/has a deferred compensation plan that will pay out another several years for us because we were aggressive in putting money into it. If this particular company goes under during that time, it’ll be over for everybody. Having that income stream is reassuring. It is primarily reassuring because it (after taxes) is enough in and of itself to cover our annual expenses. And that is only the case because of the changes we made prior to retiring - primarily, undertaking a major downsize in our housing, Getting out of the McMansion when we did was a big benefit. But even our McMansion wasn’t as McMansion-y as some, and we have always lived well below our means and have been big savers. We are extremely debt averse. There were times in our lives when we (mostly I) allowed lifestyle creep, but far less than most of our similarly situated peers.
Other steps we have taken that are at least somewhat keeping me sane during this tumultuous time is having plenty of cash. As in enough for 4-5 years of annual expenses (assuming we don’t face some sort of crazy run away inflation).
Obviously, our equities have taken a huge hit. I told my broker I am getting too old for this level of volatility given our ages. We do plan to start gradually shifting a bit more out of equities after the dust settles a bit. And, we have equities in our retirement accounts as well. But, we are in a position where we had no need to tap into those for quite some time.
Am I worried? Yes, of course. And, I am somewhat disappointed. This major downsize was done with the idea that we might upgrade a bit after about five years to something a bit nicer/larger. Our condo is on the intracoastal side, and we had hoped to move across the street to the beach side. Will that now happen? I don’t know. We had hoped to do more traveling. Will that now happen? I don’t know (who knows if we will even want to). So, our retirement may not look as “nice” as I had hoped. But, I am grateful we are in as good of a financial position as we are.
@bloomfield88, I understand that 26K is just an “artificial number” and once I can retire the market will do what it’s going to do. However, it’s a number I’ve come up with to help me make that decision.
I, like @Hoggirl, have multiple years in cash, and have a pension, so I will be fine in either case. If I work an additional 3 years my pension will be significantly larger, so that’s not a stupid idea either. I’m lucky to have choices.
@1214mom - just to clarify. My dh does not have a pension. He is receiving payouts from a deferred compensation plan. They do not last for his lifetime, so it’s not quite the same. The deferred comp gives us some medium time-frame of comfort. But, perhaps you were just comparing the likeness we have in terms of cash on hand.
I think it is important for people to realize that pensions may be impacted by this as well. That money isn’t just sitting in a pile somewhere.
