Stomachs Churn Over Rocky Economy

Sept. 23, 2008 — -- Welcome to the Alka-Seltzer economy.

Across the country, the stomachs of many Americans are churning as they watch the roller coaster ride on Wall Street, struggle with high gas prices, fight to stay in their homes and worry about the safety of their jobs.

Joan Reardon Mahoney, Jose Castillo and Atefeh Yazdi are each at very different points in their lives, looking for different things, but each is unnerved by the economy.

Mahoney wants to feel comfortable enough with her savings to finally retire. Castillo works in real estate and is struggling to stay in his home. And Yazdi wants to go to dental school but is afraid that she won't be able to pay back the loans.

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Mahoney and her late husband always saved for retirement. He was a self-employed lawyer; she worked as a counselor for pregnant women needing medical care.

"We knew that as we aged, we would need to provide for ourselves. There wasn't going to be a pension," Mahoney said.

So, each year they couple contributed the maximum to their retirement accounts.

"We felt it would provide well for us, or at least comfortably," she said.

Now at age 72, the Springfield, Ill., resident fears that she will have to continue at her part-time job indefinitely.

"The value of my account continues to go down," she said. "Sometimes I wonder if all the sacrifices we made to invest in that account were really worth it, especially when I see corporate executives bailed out of businesses that are facing bankruptcy with a retirement bonus of several million dollars."

Mahoney isn't starving and has no mortgage. But now with her Medicare supplement and prescription drug benefit payments and rising utility and gas bills, retirement looks farther and farther away.

She and her new husband would like to travel, maybe rent a place in Florida for a few months to escape the cold weather.

"That's not something we're in a position to do," she said. "Most of all I would like to engage in some volunteer efforts and just take it easy. I have arthritis and have had heart surgery and lung surgery, gone through a battle with cancer. I would like to just be able to do nothing if I wish to, but that's not what I am looking at. I've got to keep going to conserve the money I have, to make it last as long as possible."