(Poll) Are you better off now than 4 years ago? pre-Covid

[Ms. Toad]

47. Own personal finances and general situation are two different things.

I retired in 2022, which cut my income by about 30%. If I was living purely on income I'd be worse off. Still breaking even, but worse off since I wouldn't be adding to savings. The savings has gone down (dramatically, since it is invested primairly in mutual fonds), then back up. Since I expected to mostly be able to live off of retirement, spouse's SS, and her small income stream from work, I haven't yet switched to less aggressive investment strategies, I still get the benefit of the aggressive swings and I'm about back where I started.

But I retired in 2022, so my quality of life has dramaticaly increased. I miss teaching and working with students - I was mostly doing that 80-100 hours a week and loved every minute of it. But dealing with the administration and the faculty, and the tendency to both cut my staff and increase my workload was extremely stressful, and only getting worse. I'm still working with a few students in a different capacity, and I miss working with them. But I'm much more emotionally healthy without the stress associated with the supposed grown-ups. And I'm taking classes, pursuing a BFA in photography. I'm acting twice a year, diving once or twice a year, growing a lot of my summer food, and generally doing all of the things I have set aside for years when work literally occupied nearly every waking moment.

So - given that I've scrimped and saved (and been lucky enough to be in a position to do that) I'm better off because I have enough money to manage comfortably - and enjoy my greatly improved quality of life. But, given that food price increases and loss in income, my money situaiton is slightly worse.