Sep 25, 2008 7:54 pm US/Eastern
What's Worrying You: 'I Rely On Social Security'
GREEN BROOK, N.J. (CBS) ―
CBS 2 has been asking viewers to tell us what's worrying them about the economic crisis. The response has been overwhelming. Katherine from Green Brook, N.J. wrote in: "My husband and I are the caretakers of my 93-year-old mother ... and I take care of our 3-month-old grandson while my daughter works five days a week. Social Security pays the mortgage, mine buys food. … If we pay our bills, we can't eat. Is this America?"
We decided to tell her story.
For Dick and Katherine Connolly, the golden years are years to fear, a time they describe as "desperate and kind of sad; heartbreaking."
At an age when they expected to be retired, the couple is taking care of their grandson and Katherine's mother who has dementia and can't be left alone. But these commitments aren't what they worry about – finances are.
Monthly expenses are $2,000 dollars more than the income coming in.
"We're trying to keep up with the mortgage, we're trying to keep up with the bills, and you can't do it on two Social Security incomes.You just can't," says Katherine.
The dependence on Social Security comes because their nest egg, never hatched.
"You figure $625,000 would supposed to last us the rest of our lives," says Dick.
But instead, more than half disappeared in just one year forcing Dick to go back to work again because the couple has little to fall back on.
"We've taken money from the retirement so we can pay bills. That was supposed to be what we were going to coast on. Well, there is no coasting," he says.
While the couple seemed to do all the right things for their golden years, one thing they wouldn't do again is invest in medium risk stocks so late in life.
"Medium risk for someone approaching retirement was probably not a good idea for a lot of their assets," says Dan Weaver, a Rutgers business school professor.
Weaver says risk is only for the young.
"They probably should have had more of their money in low risk stocks and maybe 40 percent or so into bonds and as they get closer, a couple years out, they should [invest] more like 80 percent in bonds so they can have a fixed nest egg to retire on," he says.
But the nest egg is dwindling, and the travel plans gone, replaced by the worry of keeping their home. The couple will now sell some furniture and their truck just to make a buck.
"I cry and I hate to be attached to material things, but this is our life, this home, and we don't want to lose it," says Katherine. "This has been our whole life's work in one spot and after 44 years of marriage, we're in danger of losing it."
And so it continues: a lifetime of labor as they worry about what's next.
We want to know what financial concerns have you worried? From housing to basic food costs and everything in between.
What's Worrying You? Let Us Know.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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