One of the big lessons of the pandemic, investors said, is the need to have an emergency fund. A majority of those polled (64%) said their investment strategy will now include setting aside more money in such a stash, and close to one-half indicated they are very likely or somewhat likely to spend more time creating a long-term financial plan.
The pandemic has also caused many working investors to rethink their retirement plans. Nearly a third (30%) said it is very or somewhat likely they will delay the age at which they retire. Similarly, 29% said they will likely work more than they intended in their retirement.
Forty percent of those closer to retirement age (50 to 64), compared with 22% of investors age 18 to 49, indicated they are very or somewhat likely to work more than they intended to in retirement. Older, nonretired investors also are more likely than those under 50 to say they will have to retire later than originally planned.
The study suggests investors may have become more thick-skinned to market turmoil since the 2008-2009 downturn. It noted that three in four investors said they were invested in the stock market in 2008, but less than half of those investors (42%) indicated being more concerned about today’s market downturn than they were about the one in 2008.
Additionally, four in 10 investors, including 46% of those who were invested in the market in 2008, said they have gotten better about shrugging off market volatility. Another 31% said they were not bothered by market volatility before, and only one in four said they are bothered as much today as they were during the 2008-2009 downturn.