CBS News
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.”
CBS News
Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Wagon rolls over at Wisconsin apple orchard injuring about 25 children and adults