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The retirement city where people work
Work/retirement crossroads sign.
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TEXT OF STORY
Fewer people are saving for retirement. The Employee Benefit Research Institute released its annual retirement confidence survey this week. Almost 30 percent of the nation's workers have less than $1,000 set aside for their golden years. A majority has less than $25,000 socked away. That means retirees and future retirees are having to rethink their plans, and popular retirement communities, like Bend, Ore., are having to adjust.
Ethan Lindsey reports.
Sound of rushing water
Ethan Lindsey: Just a couple years ago, Jim and Berle Goddard retired to a brand new condo in an "active retirement" home in Bend. From their patio, they can watch hikers, bikers, even cross-country skiers pass by along the Deschutes River.
Jim Goddard: The whole area has, I think, what I call "got the fever" for being in good health.
The Goddards say the sun -- even on cold winter days -- is one of the reasons they retired here. In the winter, they dance and attend concerts. In the summer, they golf and hike. But the Goddards know they're among the lucky. Some of their neighbors, who moved here about the same time, are finding they don't have the money to stay retired.
Jan Meredith moved here in the early 1990s for the same reasons as everybody else.
Jan Meredith: I like to get out and golf, I just love to be outdoors and do all those sorts of things. I was never one to sit on the couch.
Sound of horse hooves clicking
A few years back, Meredith finished out her career as a 4th grade teacher. She planned to spend her time relaxing and volunteering, including here at a horse stable, named Healing Reins. For years, she's donated her time by helping disabled kids get into the saddle. She felt at peace with her decision to retire.
And then, without warning, the bottom dropped out of the economy. Like many fast-growing communities, Bend was hit especially hard. The city's unemployment rate tripled to 16 percent. Yes, there were job losses. But the untold story is that the number of people looking for work has dramatically increased.
Carolyn Eagan: We have retirees who are not retiring.
Carolyn Eagan is a regional economist with the state employment department. She says retirement nest eggs have shrunk and home equity is gone.
Eagan: It makes it harder to find a job. When one job opens now, you could have 100 people applying for a job.
This is happening across the country, but especially to retirement communities in places like Florida, Arizona and Bend.
Leslie Toll: I am seeing people who are reentering the work force after being retired.
Leslie Toll is the director of recruiting for St. Charles Medical Center, that's Bend's largest employer. She says going back to work after a few years off can be difficult in any office. But it's especially true in her high tech world of health care.
Toll: You know, I'll hear post-retirees say, "Maybe I'm not as fast as I used to be," etc. But I think they have a lot of value to add.
Retired teacher Jan Meredith sure hopes so. The economy dealt her a double whammy when her investments dropped and gas prices shot up. Meredith was forced back into the work force, first, at the post office sorting mail.
Eventually, she found a job as a part-time tutor with the Sylvan Learning Center. It's not the retirement she dreamt of. Remember, she wanted to spend most of her time outdoors with kids and horses. But she needed the paycheck.
Meredith: This now allows me to do the volunteering, to provide the gas, and the maintenance and things like that, and not dig from my household budget.
Instead of living a life of retirement leisure, Meredith's now filling the job some younger worker might have had.
In Bend, Ore., I'm Ethan Lindsey for Marketplace Money.
It's at least nice to know that if you do aspire to retire to an <a href="http://www.55places.com">active adult community</a> there are some great choices out there, in every price range. And, often times, as a retiree who'se still in the workforce, you won't be alone. More and more adults are staying in the workforce either because they have to or because they want to. But, you can try to have it all! A nice home in an active adult resort-style community at a price you can afford. If not today, maybe in the next few years ... it's a great time to start looking around!
I am a psychotherapist & corporate trainer that is helping with layoffs for a variety of companies & orgs.Most have the 'deer in the healights' look and hope retirement benefits will save them.Most were sold a bill of goods by the culture and the financial service industry.I also run a men's retirement support group. Without good family and friends, they are lost. Money is secondary.Your best financial/retirement plan....is your close relationships.
I think it is a self-inflicted problem. As a late 30's person, it was only mentioned off-hand that you should save for retirement. The 401k advisors put very little energy into educating future clients, and having an advanced degree in medicine, I never took a finance class, just semesters of Calculus. Coupled with people thinking they should retire in their 50's when they will live to be 80+ is a real problem. Our state pensions are underfunded with people that should still be working and contributing. The history of retirement has only been since the 50's. A drastic change to fundamentals and benefits is coming if America want to rise again to be the best.
The introduction to this story states: Almost 30 percent of the nation's workers have less than $1,000 set aside for their golden years. A majority has less than $25,000 socked away. Initially I was shocked, but then I realized that this is for all the nation's workers, so anyone over 18 and working, or was working[?]. And "a majority has less than $25,000 socked away," sounds shocking until I thought this could mean anyone working and under 35. When I was 35 I know I had less than $25,000 in savings. Someplace between 35 and 40 I realized I should start to save and invest (treasuries). And although I would have liked to start earlier, it wasn't too late, just don't put a lot in stocks, go with treasuries and reinvest the interest.
Uhh...mean life expectancy _at_65_ has not changed that much since the 30s---the low figures often cited were mean values including much higher infant mortality rates, which are therefore not that relevant to the length of Social Security pay-out.
Add to that thee massive productivity gains sustained since the 30s, and I can only conclude that our government income supports are in trouble because the powerful 1.)want more for themselves, hence the much-reduced tax rates they've enjoyed since Reagan, and 2.) _want_ the system to be inadequate, as it makes workers more frightened of joblessness, and so willing to put up with much more than otherwise.
Add that a foolish but large contingent believe that _they_ will be rich someday, and that many people hate their jobs and react by loathing anyone who doesn't have to do one, and you've got a resentiment-filled cupcake of false consciousness all delicious and moist. Mmmmm.
The story about out-of-retirees' jobs underscores the extent to which we should remember history: Social Security was created both out of compassion for the poor elderly and for the younger jobless. Social Security was proposed at least partially in response to the growing popularity of the 'Townsend Plan'---old age pensions to prime the economic pump and the system and to clear the way for younger, would-be, workers. That people don't understand this aspect of the system I lay at the feet of bad education, including a generation's propaganda against government's championing the freedoms of those with less than those who own and run the country.
As a 59-year-old, I enjoy my job but would dearly love to retire to pursue other interests. However, everyone in my age bracket and younger should face the fact that the traditional retirement age was based on very different lifespans, very different expectations, very different healthcare opportunities, very different typical work environments (i.e. more service businesses, less grinding manual labor,) and very different needs. Where the age of mortality was approx. 65 when social security began, most of us can expect to live many more years than that, and eventually with more costly healthcare needs.
I sympathize with those who thought they planned well, and have been hurt by recent economic events. However, get the sense that some did not think through the real cost of their aspirations in retirement. It's the typical problem: how to balance a range of interests, yet pay for it all.
I think we need to face facts that we all need to work longer to finance our retirement. At least we mostly avoid the out-of-whack social policies of some countries that result in large entitlements (Greece -- can you read this?)
Of course, this means that there may be less room for younger hires, but does that obviate the need for elders to work who can work? ...Or would the youngsters prefer to write the seniors a check to maintain life's needs?
