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Americans
see dream of retirement fading
How
Much Will You Need to Retire? It Helps to Plan
Great
Expectations: the Retirement Mentality vs. Reality |
 |
Senior Staff
By: Unknown Author
CBS News, June 17 2002
Seven years
ago, when Joyce Smith left her job of 22 years in Perry, Ga., she thought
she'd retired for good.
"Yes, I did," says Smith. But, as CBS News Correspondent Anthony
Mason reports, Smith's plans for her golden years didn't work as she had
thought.
Smith had no pension and her financial advisor rolled her 40lk retirement
fund into high tech stocks.
"When the stock market fell and the high tech started losing money, I
saw my money going down the drain," she says.
Social Security wasn't enough to pay the bills. And Smith grew anxious.
"Yes. To be perfectly honest, when you see $2- to 3,000 a month
disappearing, you get concerned."
So concerned, that at age 68, Joyce has gone back to work part time at the
Georgia Department of Labor.
The American Association of Retired Persons says 1 in every 5 men over the
age of 65 is now working and one in every 10 women. And their ranks are
likely grow, because a study of baby boomers found that 80 percent expect
to do some work during their retirement years.
"The trend toward earlier and earlier retirement has changed,'' says
John Rother with the AARP. "I think work is part of retirement for
many people today."
For many, it's an economic necessity. Some people simply haven't saved
enough. But with Americans leading longer and healthier lives, more and
more people want to keep working.
In Ho Ho Kus, N.J., Anthony Di Giacomo has run his own salon, Anthony's
Hair and Nails, for most of his life.
"Forty long years," says Di Giacomo. When asked if he thought he
would be retired by now, Di Giacomo, 60, says: "Of course! Of course!
Aren't we all?"
But he's still presiding over a bustling business. And still worried about
paying the bills.
"What the economy has done is change where you just have to make
money to do the things you wanna do," he says.
Di Giacomo plans to hand his salon over to his daughter one day. But he's
found it hard to walk away. So he thinks about retirement while he banters
with his customers. "Do blondes have more fun," he asks one, and
gets an emphatic "Yes!"
"Here I am behind this desk," Di Giacomo sighs,
"Still!"
As she approaches 70, Joyce Smith is looking for new job skills.
"I have gone back to school to take computer classes. And intend to
take some more."
Because like more and more retirees, now that she's back in the workforce,
she plans to stay there.
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