American Seniors Can't Retire

CBS

Transcript

left of your nest egg it's pretty strong you know look at it it's really solid 63-year-old Maran rivman thought her financial Nest Egg was sound she had semi-retired with plans to spend the next phase of her life reliving her Globe trotting youth I traveled the long way home from the peace Cor in the 60s now those plans are on hold after the stock market's nose dive put a huge dent in her retirement savings how much did you lose since its height probably about 20% so Marian is back in the workforce in her old job as a marketing specialist put the word out that I'm not doing work for fun I'm doing work for real like millions of baby boomers ages 55 to 62 on the brink of retirement rivman doesn't have years to recoup the losses on her retirement assets according to the AARP older Americans are the most vulnerable investors in these troubled times people that are a few years away from retirement are starting to panic the number one one fear of retirees in America is the fear of outliving their money certified financial planner Bill Losi is trying to convince jittery retired clients not to cash out of the market the AARP says some Americans 45 and older are already rating their 401ks or curtailing their contributions to pension plans the last thing you want to do is have to be pulling from your Investment Portfolio your stocks and bonds when they're going down in value for those still working experts say retiring now should be the last Resort in a bare Market consider delaying several years and waiting to withdraw from your portfolio and to take Social Security a few years later what are these like ribman more than one quarter of all older American workers have postponed plans to retire I had been the good girl I had saved you know I had the nest egg I did all the right things I had I never never lived beyond my means now she's delaying her own Golden Ears I'm to make sure that you can afford to be here as long as you are alive to secure her 91-year-old mothers really yeah really for good for good Michelle Miller CBS News New York

U.S. Money Crisis Hits Europe

CBS

Transcript

that the world sneezes when the United States catches a cold was proved again today as the leaders of Europe's biggest economies gathered in Paris the credit Crunch and resulting economic slowdown has hid hard here too and part of the message from these leaders was don't blame us this crisis that has come from America has affected all businesses so we agreed to ask the European Investment Bank to frontload £25 billion of Finance for small business loans the Europeans have become as desperate as the US to free up credit but there will be no continent-wide bailout of bad loans instead action will be taken on a country bycount basis which has already been happening as banks have failed here and have either been nationalized or swallowed up by bigger institutions the decision today announced by the convenor of the meeting French president sarosi was to continue the country by country approach but to try to coordinate efforts across borders so that actions in one country do not adversely affect another liquidity will be assured in order to preserve confidence and stability at least that's the plan there is one other difference in the European response to the economic crisis though a pledge to punish failed bankers no detail was supplied on what the punishment would be but the European leaders were clearly interested in accomplishing two aims here giving the impression of unity and finding someone other than themselves to blame Mark Phillips CBS News London

Will Fed Bailout Even Help?

CBS

Transcript

after a nail-biting stock spiraling hot air fueled Rocket Ride on the stock market and Capitol Hill the motion is adopted wall Street's got its $700 billion bailout now the pressure's on the US Treasury which has just 45 days to figure out how to spend it President Bush cautioned the benefits won't be felt immediately and we're going to make sure that whatever we do is done in deliberate fashion and when that'll be effective and be mindful the taxpayers until that money starts flowing Us credit markets remain clogged meaning loans are hard to come by California and Massachusetts both say they may need Federal cash to pay their bills because the banks won't give them loans that may be why the market surged with optimism Before the bill passed then dropped more than 100 points afterward lack of confidence the treasury can act in time to shore up the market in the immediate future the treasury secretary's already admitted he doesn't have enough people to do it so he's going to Outsource the job to experts on Wall Street essentially the folks who created the problem won't there be the perception of Wall Street uh helping Wall Street we will have the proper oversight this bailout Brigade will then get Banks to compete against each other to sell off their bad loans to the government one says I'll sell you my million dooll bonds for 750,000 another bank says I'll sell you my million dooll bonds for $700,000 and the treasury takes the best price it can get if the treasury Bargains the price is too low some Banks could still go under if it pays too much the taxpayer is left picking up the difference whatever the treasury decides in just a few months we're going to have a new Administration in the white house and they will probably also make their own changes to this plan Jeff Kimberly doer in Washington Kimberly thank you