Couple scrambles after nest egg cracks: Recalculating retirement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10527757

Published Friday January 2, 2009
Couple scrambles after nest egg cracks: Recalculating retirement
BY JOE RUFF
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Chuck and Julie Nash took early retirement last year, confident their investments would last for at least 30 years.


Julie Nash thought she had retired. She was wrong. She deals with her part of the financial crisis by working 30 hours a week at a craft store.


Then came the subprime mortgage debacle, the failure of high-profile investment banks, and the credit crisis.

The stock market lost 40 percent of its value between May 2008 and November 2008, and in late fall came the official announcement of what many people already knew: The economy was in a recession.

The Nashes' portfolio, once in the high six figures, is down by a third. And Chuck and Julie, worried they might outlive their investments, are working part-time jobs to help cover living expenses.

Chuck, 59, retired in May 2007 as an accountant at Qwest Communications, and now is music director at an Omaha church. Julie, 56, who was laid off about a year ago from her information technology job at Qwest, works 30 hours a week as a clerk at a craft store.

The couple's story is being played out across the country as retirees and near-retirees reconsider their finances. Investment accounts have lost trillions of dollars, and it could be years before financial markets reach the record heights seen in late 2007.


FULL story at link.

[summer borealis]

1. Retired in their 50s?

I don't feel sorry for these people at all. Get your asses back to work!

[Brucie Kibbutz]

2. yeah

You should have to work until you're 80 years old.