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Retirement Savers Lost $2 Trillion in the Stock Market
Tweet Share on Facebook October 8, 2008 Comment (16)Stock market turmoil has wiped out roughly $2 trillion of Americans' retirement savings over the past 15 months, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The value of pension funds and retirement accounts dropped by roughly $1 trillion, or almost 10 percent, in the year ending June 30, the CBO told the House Education and Labor Committee Tuesday, citing Federal Reserve data. Since then, asset prices have dropped even further. The CBO says that retirement assets may have declined by as much as $2 trillion over the past 15 months.
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Survey: Americans Changing Their Retirement Plans Because of the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook October 8, 2008 Comment (17)Americans are changing their retirement plans because of recent changes in the economy. A new AARP survey of workers age 45 and up found that if the economy does not improve significantly, most will probably spend less in retirement (69 percent) and delay retirement and work longer (65 percent). Fewer Americans (37 percent) said they will save more for retirement.
Saving more is considered out of the question for many families who are already strapped for cash. The telephone survey of 1,628 workers in September by AARP and International Communications Research showed that many older Americans have found it more difficult to pay for necessities like food, gas, and medicine (56 percent), helped a family member pay bills (47 percent), and found it hard to pay for utilities like heating, cooling, and phone services (45 percent) in the past year. To cope with rising costs, some workers have increased the number of hours they work (20 percent) and stopped contributing to their retirement accounts (20 percent).
Tell us: Have you changed your retirement plans?
