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Stock Losses Suck Out of Retirement Savings
By Alejandra Owens, October 2, 2008 05:25 PM
The Associated Press has a piece about how stock losses are taking a heavy toll on retirement savings:
So close and yet so far. It's a frustration being felt by Americans who thought the finish line to their working life was almost in sight. The financial crisis that toppled major Wall Street banks and snarled credit markets around the world has also taken a toll on nest eggs, forcing people to rethink when -- and even if -- their savings will allow them to retire. More than half of people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday said they worry that they will have to work longer because the value of their retirement savings has declined. (Emphasis mine)
Of course this poll doesn't come as much of a surprise. The crazy thing to me is that older Americans had already begun to have second thoughts on retiring before this financial meltdown. If we were in a crisis before, what is a more adequate term for what we're in now?