Dinner at the Gomez home outside Boston provides a textbook image of the sandwich generation: three sets of relatives living under one roof.
“A club sandwich has a lot of layers, and we have a lot of layers,” 57-year-old Alicia Gomez said.
It’s not the easiest way to save for retirement, as Gomez and her 59-year-old husband, Chu, told CBS News during an interview last year. Back then, their nest egg was healthy and growing. Stocks were climbing, hitting an all-time high by February of this year. But they cratered as the trade war started, only to climb back and recover most of the losses.
“I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster,” Alicia Gomez said. “You just hope that if we’re gonna be on the downturn now, will we be on the upturn when we decide to retire?”
Like millions of Americans, the couple is experiencing waves of an uncertain, see-sawing market. These gyrations can trigger rash decisions, said labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School for Social Research.
“We have a name for living through that kind of volatility, and it’s called scarring,” Ghilarducci said, stressing the importance of asking the experts in times of financial crisis.
“Do not talk to your friends or your family about what to do. Take a breath, take a minute and rely on expert advice,” Ghilarducci said.
Alicia, who holds down two jobs, had thought maybe she’d cut back work at 62. Chu, who works in logistics, thought it would be at 65. Now, they’ve adjusted that mindset.
“It’s probably gonna be 67 at least, but you know, I think there’s still a lot of unknowns,” Alicia said.
Right now, the couple is maxing out their retirement accounts, Chu said, but that could change if they needed to pull back.
Adding to their anxiety is the fear that the Social Security system could run dry. There’s been a 13% jump this year in people claiming retirement benefits early, despite the reduced payouts, according to the Urban Institute.
Ghilarducci strongly advises against that.
“Wait for the maximum benefit that you can get. Don’t haircut yourself now, anticipating it’ll be cut later,” she said.
The Gomezes say their retirement investments are up by about 3% this year, so they’ll simply sit tight and work hard to hold onto their jobs.
“A lot of us have been through a lot within, you know, just less than a year. We don’t have do-over time,” Alicia said.
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