Couple nearing status faces banal marketplace woes
Dinner astatine the Gomez location extracurricular Boston provides a textbook representation of the sandwich generation: 3 sets of relatives surviving nether 1 roof.
"A nine sandwich has a batch of layers, and we person a batch of layers," 57-year-old Alicia Gomez said.
It's not the easiest mode to prevention for retirement, arsenic Gomez and her 59-year-old husband, Chu, told CBS News during an interrogation past year. Back then, their nest egg was steadfast and growing. Stocks were climbing, hitting an all-time precocious by February of this year. But they cratered arsenic the commercialized warfare started, lone to ascent backmost and retrieve astir of the losses.
"I consciousness similar I'm connected a rollercoaster," Alicia Gomez said. "You conscionable anticipation that if we're gonna beryllium connected the downturn now, volition we beryllium connected the upturn erstwhile we determine to retire?"
Like millions of Americans, the mates is experiencing waves of an uncertain, see-sawing market. These gyrations tin trigger rash decisions, said labour economist Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School for Social Research.
"We person a sanction for surviving done that benignant of volatility, and it's called scarring," Ghilarducci said, stressing the value of asking the experts successful times of fiscal crisis.
"Do not speech to your friends oregon your household astir what to do. Take a breath, instrumentality a infinitesimal and trust connected adept advice," Ghilarducci said.
Alicia, who holds down 2 jobs, had thought possibly she'd chopped backmost enactment astatine 62. Chu, who works successful logistics, thought it would beryllium astatine 65. Now, they've adjusted that mindset.
"It's astir apt gonna beryllium 67 astatine least, but you know, I deliberation there's inactive a batch of unknowns," Alicia said.
Right now, the mates is maxing retired their retirement accounts, Chu said, but that could alteration if they needed to propulsion back.
Adding to their anxiousness is the fearfulness that the Social Security strategy could tally dry. There's been a 13% leap this twelvemonth successful radical claiming status benefits early, contempt the reduced payouts, according to the Urban Institute.
Ghilarducci powerfully advises against that.
"Wait for the maximum payment that you tin get. Don't haircut yourself now, anticipating it'll beryllium chopped later," she said.
The Gomezes accidental their status investments are up by astir 3% this year, truthful they'll simply beryllium choky and enactment hard to clasp onto their jobs.
"A batch of america person been done a batch within, you know, conscionable little than a year. We don't person do-over time," Alicia said.
Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated concern expert for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and thing other with a dollar motion connected TV, vigor (including her nationally syndicated vigor show), the web and her blog, "Jill connected Money."
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