Carol and Larry Spiegelman, a professional Manhattan couple heading into their early 70s, can’t afford to comfortably retire — and they’re far from alone.
“We met with our financial adviser and our accountant four weeks ago thinking we are in really good shape financially and we found out we are not,” Carol Spiegelman, a substitute teacher who turns 69 on Monday, told The Post. “Being retired and having no income is very scary for us,” added Spiegelman, who rents an apartment on York Avenue in the East 70s with her husband, 71. He still works as a dentist.
It’s scary for so many others as well. Many Americans near the end of their working lives are afraid they won’t have enough money for a secure retirement. Americans are living longer — 81 years for a girl born today, 76 for a boy.
But financing their lifestyles past retirement has become a huge problem. A new study this month by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College underscores the sheer magnitude: Despite the recent run-up in home prices and equities, about half of American households won’t be able to keep up their living standards in retirement.
That’s only a slight improvement since 2010. And it meshes with a separate recent AARP finding — half of New York City voters 50 and older in the workforce said they will have to delay retirement. The reason — their shaky finances.
“A lot of investors have been beaten up,” said Zack Shepard, a vice president at Matson Money, an investment adviser firm. “They’ve given up on the American Dream and on equities. We’ve had two market crashes in the last 10 years.”
Not surprisingly, retirement is becoming a remote dream: The typical American child born today will retire at age 77 in 2090, forecasts PricewaterhouseCoopers.
And that’s as older Americans become the fastest-growing segment of the labor force, likely a major factor in the 12.5 percent unemployment rate among 20- to 25-year-olds. (Twice the rate for people over 25.)
What the Spiegelmans are going through helps explain further.
“I don’t know exactly how much we’d need for retirement, but we can’t have the same lifestyle — we certainly wouldn’t go out to dinner, buy luxury items and big Broadway shows will suffer,” Carol Spiegelman said. “Both our adviser and accountant told Larry that cash is still king — as long as he can still work. Even if he works two or three days, he won’t have to dip into his savings and we will be better off.”
The Spiegelman’s live off Social Security, counting on their investments and Larry’s self-funded pension as a business owner to bridge the financial gap later in retirement.
The 2008 market downturn hammered their portfolio. Larry recently sold his dental practice in Manhattan but still works three days a week for the new owners.
Carol Spiegelman says many friends in her age group are hurting financially. “Believe it or not, we only have one friend who has retired. I think people are not retiring. They are working for as long as they possibly can.”