Economy Increases Fear of Homelessness
By Joshuah at 7 October, 2008, 6:31 am
If “Economists generally don’t believe that a depression is likely” then you can almost be guaranteed that it’s just around the corner. If you are not prepared now it may very well be too late…
Source: CNN.com
Economists generally don’t believe that a depression is likely, but Ross isn’t alone in her despair. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Monday found that among 1,000 Americans surveyed over the weekend, nearly 60 percent said a depression is at least somewhat likely.
To define economic depression, the poll cited measures of the Great Depression of the 1930s: a 25 percent unemployment rate; widespread bank failures; and millions of Americans homeless and unable to feed their families.
Jim Whipp, a 55-year-old Coloradan visiting Atlanta on Monday, didn’t mention depression when asked about the economy, but said he was worried about retirement.
Whipp, who does DSL installation and maintenance for Qwest Communications, said he had put more than 25 percent of his pay into his 401k from mid-2006 to the end of November 2007, when his wife was laid off from her job.
Falls in the stock market erased all of that, he said.
“Everything I put in the last two years are gone,” said Whipp.
He had planned to retire in two to three years. But now, even though his wife has been rehired, retirement probably is seven or eight years away, he said.
Greg Olsen, a partner with New York financial services firm Lenox Advisors, said his advice to investors in the face of the distressing economic news depends on how much time and money they have.
“It’s the person who has the lesser amount of money to invest that we worry about because they can’t afford to have these types of losses,” he said.
But he said now “is not the time to make any rash decisions” for anyone whose retirement is more than 10 years away.
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