Occam's Razor

In the week since I last wrote, life has been wholly upended for most Americans. But in many ways, life is unchanged for us. There’s just the two of us (four if you include two cats). Being retired, we are minimally impacted by COVID-19.

For us, the biggest financial impact is our stock portfolio. It’s down $180K at the moment, or about 19% from its peak on February 19. It will probably go lower, but the good news is that we don’t draw it down much, just $1900 a month and that comes from selling bond funds. So the stocks inside it wait for a more prosperous time when share prices recover.

Those with money that survive it will be the winners. On Monday we met virtually with our financial adviser. We actually bought some stocks on the theory that they are historically cheap and over time will recover. It amounted to 5% of the portfolio so it wasn’t that risky. Since no one can time the market (although I got lucky), those with money buy incrementally when values go down precipitously should eventually reap nice profits. I think that’s what our financial adviser is doing. Since he is paid as a percent of our portfolio, if he’s right, then he too will be enriched some years hence. Meanwhile, a steady pension and social security provide the bulk of our income. I can’t see those going away.

The government may give all Americans money to get through it. If so, we are unlikely to spend it. Since we don’t need it I hope there is some means testing. I’d rather it go to those who do need it, which is most of us.

In truth, being retired already, things haven’t changed that much for us. Mainly there is a lot more washing of hands and cleaning of surfaces than there used to be. We shop minimally and go through an informal protocol of bringing sanitary wipes with us when we shop to wipe surfaces like shopping cart handles. When we get home we wash hands and clean things we touched. So far it’s working. Eight days ago we got off a cruise ship and flew home, and there are no signs of COVID-19 here. Some items were in short supply at the store, or not available. But so far coping hasn’t been hard. Coping is accomplished mostly through moping. I do have some consulting work that generally keeps me busy. It hasn’t dried up at all, for which I should be grateful. Thankfully, it’s all work that can be done remotely.

We have plenty of incentive to be sanitary, because the one thing we can’t count on now is our health care system, at least if we come down with something serious. We might get some advice from doctors over the phone. But if we need hospitalization, as this thing gets worse it’s unlikely that we will get it.

I got my hair cut yesterday. It was our last opportunity as our hairdresser is going on hiatus starting Monday. It was all done carefully, but there was some risk. It’s likely that my hair will get quite long before it is cut again.

As this drags on, we will miss things like going out to dinner and travel. There is no place to go, and it certainly won’t be on a cruise ship. Unless we want to take in a mountain vista nearby, we might as well stay home. All this of course will just feed the recession sure to come, which looks like it could easily topple over into a depression.

This would be a good time to spend some money to stimulate the economy, but that too has risks. I wouldn’t mind a bathroom on our upper level, but not at the cost of having construction workers in my house for weeks on end bringing in who knows what with them. I bought a new car last year and we really don’t need to replace my wife’s car. The house is well furnished, so there is no need to replace anything.

The YMCA is closed indefinitely so exercising with weights won’t be happening for a while. What exercise equipment we have at home is cardiovascular. My principle form of exercise is walking, and that’s at least still okay. When I go walking I see plenty of neighbors, so at some level it’s like nothing is happening. Generally they are keeping their social distance, but I see couples not doing so. The park across the street from us is closed, but that hasn’t kept people from parking in the part that isn’t closed and walking around it. There were a few hundred people in the park yesterday. Occasionally I do see questionable behavior. A group of kids on bikes on the local path were probably breaking protocol. I just don’t think they care and figure they won’t get it.

What I do know is that this is just ramping up. Its economic consequences are already evident and will get much, much worse. A month from now the threat won’t be so much not being able to find toilet paper, but from having a supply chain under strain. As grocery clerks and pharmacists get sick, things will get much more dicey. I’m already seeing cops parking along the sides of the road in places they normally wouldn’t, I think mainly to signal to the community that big brother is nearby. I expect in time we will see them guarding grocery stores and pharmacies. We may think this is the new normal.

I do believe all this is temporary and things will rebound nicely when it is over. But it’s likely to last longer than thought. Complacency may set it, bringing a resurgence of the virus. Clearly, it’s going to have huge ripples. When it’s over, society is likely to be reorganized in pretty fundamental ways. We probably will see this time as a period of great change where things we took for granted, like an abundance of local retailers, largely come to an end.