SALT LAKE CITY -- After decades as teachers, Ruby and Lee Hammel thought they had their retirement years adequately covered. They have a retirement fund, Social Security and a small sum socked away in two IRA accounts -- and those IRAs are what Ruby Hammel is worried about. They have both lost money over the past six months. "I am afraid to look when that next report comes," said Ruby Hammel, 80, of Salt Lake City. "I hoped this would be a bit of a nest egg to carry us over, but every quarter it is going down." And going down at a particularly bad time. Lee, 88, has Alzheimer's disease, and "it is costing quite a bit," his wife said. "Financially, we're not as well off as we were three or four years ago because of this situation." Between that and the economy -- this week's stock market upheaval, yes, but also the price of gasoline, gas, electricity and food -- the couple are feeling squeezed, Ruby Hammel said. To ease the pinch, she makes a little money giving tennis lessons during the summer. So far, she said, "we're hanging in there." Jack A. Powers, 57, who retired early after a career in aerospace management, said his mother is watching her nest egg crack, too. He describes his own financial state as fine "until inflation hits." What's more worrisome to him is the "manipulations of the market" and the impact years from now on his children and grandchildren. "What is the financial state of our country going to be like when they get here?" he asks. "The focus should be on saving Main Street, not Wall Street." The future comes up at the morning coffee klatch at the Sandy (Utah) Senior Center, too. For these retirees, it's politics -- not the U.S. treasury secretary's efforts to save failing financial institutions -- that riles them up at their daily get-togethers. "I don't worry about it," said Al Whipple, 76. The youngest of the bunch is 70, the oldest 89, and all consider themselves in pretty good financial shape thanks to Social Security, pensions and money socked away in conservative investments. Their parents weathered the Great Depression, and its lessons were passed on to them: Save money and stay out of debt. "That's what most of us did -- started early putting away money," said Bob Mueller, 70. "As far as I am concerned, I'm sitting in pretty good shape." Yet, there are jitters even here. Gary L. Smith, 75, said last week he visited the Chase Bank branch where he has kept his money for 54 years. "They said I don't need to worry," he said, drawing a chorus of "What did you expect?" Darwin Smith, 76, is troubled that the U.S. has borrowed money from so many foreign countries and spent itself into a hole in Iraq. He would not be surprised if a depression developed. Bob Bell, a radiologist at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, thought he'd be able to retire in his mid-to-late 50s. "I am my own pension plan," said Bell, 58, meaning that when the market takes a dive, so does his future. And this isn't the first time -- eight years ago, the technology industry collapsed and his investments took a hard hit. He figures he'll have to work another five years "until this thing sorts itself out. Fortunately, I'm in a situation where I can keep working, but I'm unhappy that things are going down, not up." E-mail Brooke Adams at brooke(at)sltrib.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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