Why many American seniors are forced to work in retirement
St. Petersburg, Florida — Larry Gesick, a 77-year-old electrician by trade, leaves his home at 5:30 a.m. and heads for his part-time job unloading trailers at a local supermarket in St. Petersburg, Florida, for $14.75 an hour. This was certainly not part of his retirement plan.
His wife, 66-year-old Joyce, prepares for her workday, making $14 an hour as a full-time legal administrator.
"It's not really a retirement," Joyce told CBS News. "…It's working every day."
The Gesicks came out of retirement, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. About one in five people over age 65, or approximately 11 million Americans, are still working, according to the Pew Research Center.
Labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci says work is the new retirement.
"So, I call it the work, retire, repeat syndrome," Ghilarducci said. "…More than half of the people who are retired right now do not have enough money to be retired."
Ghilarducci says she blames "policymakers who experimented with our retirement system 40 years ago, and they are not saying the experiment failed."
That experiment is what is known today as the 401K, named after part of a 1978 law that offered companies an alternative to the traditional pension plan.
"The thought was that Americans just need a little bit of financial literacy and they can just save on their own," Ghilarducci said.
But in fact, many of today's older workers were never taught enough about saving and investing for retirement.
"I grew up on a farm," Larry said. "Nobody there instructed any of us to put money aside and make your own way later on down the road."
Whether you're over 65, like the Gesicks, or nearing that age, there are a few rules of the road to keep in mind. Everyone needs a plan. First, calculate when it's best to claim Social Security. Next, fund an emergency reserve. If you're still working, set aside six-to-12 months' worth of living expenses. If you're already retired, make it one to two years' worth of living expenses. And keep that reserve in a safe, easily accessible, interest-bearing account.
Like many working Americans, the Gesicks were more doers than savers, and they drained their 401ks.
"I think to us it felt more like a savings account than to focus on, 'I need to have this piled up to actually live on,'" Joyce said.
Now, they have a mortgage, a car loan and they are paying down about $12,000 in other debt. But even with Social Security, some old pension funds and their paychecks, money is tight.
After all their expenses and debt is paid down every month, they say they are left with just $50. And had the Gessicks waited till age 70 to collect Social Security, they would be collecting more.
"Yeah, it's stressful now," Joyce said. "But I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel."