SURVEY SAYS: Being Thankful

Last week, I asked NewsDash readers to share what they are thankful for.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of responding readers work in a plan sponsor role. One-quarter are advisers/consultants, and 10% are recordkeepers/TPAs/investment consultants.

I want to take the time to recognize that many people have suffered poor health, financial stress and/or loss this year. Positive thoughts go out to everyone.

Here are what respondents said they are thankful for (A big thank you to all who shared):

• I am thankful I have not yet contracted COVID, and I am also thankful that retirement is just on the horizon!
• No one in my family is sick!
• Family, health, remaining crazily employed.
• I wear many hats and have been working in office with 18 others in office as well as our warehouse staff. I am thankful that we have thought enough of each other to be prudent in our personal lives and have not had a case. As yet! We are in So. Ca. so we go many directions when we leave the office.
• I’m nearing the end of a 40-year career and planning for retirement. I’m behind in my planning because I never really thought I’d see the day. Now I’m getting some estimates and it is starting to seem real and possible for the first time. I can hardly believe it.
• I’m thankful that I haven’t lost any of my close friends and relatives to COVID. I live with my 94-year-old mother and I’m thankful I haven’t brought any germs home to her. I’m thankful that I have been able to work at our clinic every day during this pandemic.
• I am healthy, employed in a job I love and have navigated this crazy year as best I could.
• I’m thankful for the health of my family and friends, a wonderful new job I started during this craziness, and courage and dedication of all essential workers on the frontlines.
• I am thankful that I have family who are well, that I can afford food for them and have a job that can help others. I am grateful for my friends who cheer me on and a safe haven called home where I have plenty to do given the time I am spending there. I am also thankful for days without pain or grief and the sense of optimism God has given me where I can reach out of the dark days and smile in promise of the future looking much brighter.
• My family
• Oh so much to be thankful for this year that was taken for granted before! Hindsight is 2020.
• I am thankful for my family who are safe and healthy. I am also thankful to have been able to continue working during the pandemic, and to work for a company that cares about their employees and well as the communities where their employees live.
• That I have a job to go to every day and we are at the moment (knock on wood) financially secure. For my family and a comfortable home.
• My family’s health
• My family and health. During the pandemic these items helped keep me grounded and remind me what is important in life.
• I’m thankful for so many things, but especially, the health of my family, the stability of our jobs and the love in our hearts…
• Thankful for good health, the ability to work from home and earn a paycheck, and my family.
• I’m thankful for God’s watch care over my family. I’m also thankful that I work for an employer that was willing to pay their employees even when they were not able to work.
• My family’s health and relatively smart decisions regarding avoiding COVID and politically charged stress.
• Continued employment & a comfortable home to live in since I have been spending 97% of my time in it.

I also asked readers for comments about celebrating Thanksgiving this year. Most shared that theirs will be a pared down celebration, and at least one is feeling “more thankful than ever.”

Verbatim

Our Thanksgiving celebration will be a much toned-down affair, but I’m OK with that this year.

No celebrating, no gathering.

Let’s all remember there are many more things for which to be thankful than to complain about.

Very different at home with immediate family only! Regrets my son who lives and works in Australia cannot join us this year. They have strict travel bubbles.

I was actually expecting a very small – 2 person (if that) – celebration this year. Now getting together with family for about 5 people total, but including some social distancing. I’m going more for them than me – I’d be fine on my own, but they are looking for some “normalcy” so we’ll see how this goes… Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Getting together with 8 of our closest friends and family and I am so happy and thankful for that. I was sick last year on Thanksgiving Day.

Our Thanksgiving will only be 1 short (my Aunt) who is staying home. So, we will be with my brother and his wife and our son who have been in “bubble” all along.

I am fortunate that our normal Thanksgiving group is just 7 people so we do not have to change how we celebrate this year.

Although Thanksgiving will not be the same, I look forward to a pause to appreciate what I have, not what I don’t.

Exercise your freedom and liberty

Small – it’s the first time in my life that I won’t celebrate with my extended family.

It will be quiet this year, with only some of the immediate family.

Skipping the festivities. Just my husband and I this year, along with the two fur babies.

Feeling more thankful than ever

We may not be around family and friends this year, but it will make 2021 all that more sweet when we can be together.

Both sides of my family have cancelled it for this year…there are too many risk factors at play to justify all gathering in a small space – breathing and eating next to each other…

Happy to stay home and isolate. We will send food to my extended family and talk on the phone or Zoom. And be thankful we are all still here!

We will be doing smaller outdoor gatherings with just immediate family. We are not eating a meal, just having dessert and having family time for a couple of hours.

I would like to see a delayed celebration when COVID is under control and in the rearview mirror, and we have a “Thanksgiving” sometime in the future.

Small & local with my sister, brother in law & niece. All food is good.