Wall Street And Retirement
CBS
Transcript
watch the ball watch the ball here it is Walter Lawrence was living retirement on Easy Street until Wall Street scrambled his nest egg I had a lot of money today I don't have a lot of money half his savings Gone without spending a dime it's a financial distress call for millions of retirees America's economy burning through their assets Lawrence can spot an emergency he's a retired Atlanta firefighter and after 16 years he may have to go back to work doing something I doubt you would find too many people looking to hire a six seven year old so uh then what do you do Paul Nelson would never have retired at all he saved planned invested for a long walk down the Fairway but his Investments are down 25% they always say you need x amount of dollars to retire well I don't think anybody he could say right now what you would really need to retire there's no way even before this week's Financial upheaval at 18% few American workers were very confident they'd have enough money for retirement and most retirees have more financial worries now than the day they stopped working more Americans over 55 are still working than at any time since 1970 and with the economy now in turmoil labor experts predict even more anxious older workers will be forced to put off retirement I would honestly say I would waited another two or 3 years but in two or three years I might have to say it was five or seven because like the uncertainty we don't know what it's going to take which has this retired firefighter smelling smoke in his future so you could see outliving your assets yes mhm and could you ever have imagined that no no just a couple years ago no they're like many retirees with no idea where to find a new road map back to Easy Street all right Mark stman CBS News Atlanta