When it comes to retirement, people usually start thinking about it years before. This allows them to make plans, projections, save money and explore possibilities before leaving the workforce for real. Unfortunately, no matter how much you plan for the future, life sometimes gets in the way and throws sometimes unexpected at you – like a global pandemic that severely affected the economy and financial markets all over the world.

This prompted a very reasonable question: If I am already approaching my retirement age, should I just move up my retirement date? It’s definitely something to consider, especially since we don’t know when the U.S. market and economy will fully recover. Something else to ponder on when making a decision is the fact that companies have hit by the pandemic and have to make cutbacks. For this reason, many employees – even those under 50 – are given the opportunity to retire earlier. Should you take this opportunity as well?

To help you decide whether retiring now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, is a good idea or not, here are ten crucial things you should consider first.

Are you currently working?

This is probably the most important question that needs to be answered. Given the extremely high rate of unemployment caused by the coronavirus crisis, millions of people are currently without jobs. In fact, as of April 16, about 22 million people in the United States claimed unemployment insurance in the previous four weeks, with numbers rising to record highs in July, according to the Labor Department.

Why it’s important

Long story short, if you are among the unfortunate people to have lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, your situation is not that good. That’s because, apart from not having a current job, the fact that you are five years away from retiring might make the job-hunting process a bit more difficult.

If you’ve still kept your job despite all the economic turmoil, staying on the original course might prove to be a little easier. However, if you’ve just received your termination papers and your professional field doesn’t exactly abound in new job opportunities or allows you some sort of flexibility, you might also need to rethink your plan.

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