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American Morning
Minding Your Business: The New Retirement is Not Retiring
Aired May 02, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Are you getting KO'ed by your 401(k)? You might need to rethink your retirement, some anyway.
Andy Serwer is working nights. Gerri Willis working mornings with us "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you.
GERRI WILLIS, "SMARTMONEY" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Good to see you.
HEMMER: So, there are others working into their golden years, coming out of retirement in some cases going back to work.
WILLIS: You bet. Well, you know, it's not a big surprise. We've had three years of a bear market, right? People are seeing their 401(k)'s tank.
But guess what? There is some surprises when you look at some research out from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. They see that 65 percent of people say they want to continue working into retirement, because they want to stay involved and they enjoy working, which I think is a big surprise. Only 33 percent here saying they need the money.
HEMMER: And if that's the case, though, and if they've got to go back to work, finding jobs, difficult?
WILLIS: Well, you know, it used to be, right? I mean, the problem with if you were retired before was that you would lose part of your social security benefits or your pension. You compromised the retirement benefits you already had in place. Not the case anymore. We'll be talking about that very soon.
HEMMER: Yes, it might have been a story back in 1997 and 1998 when the Nasdaq was, what, around 15,000, Jack?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You wonder, though, how much of this forced exit from retirement might have been caused by the skullduggery of some of the Wall Street firms and the kind of misleading advice that was given by people like Jack Grubman...
HEMMER: That's right.
CAFFERTY: ... you know,, before the implosion of the market and the loss of so much value in people's 401(k)'s and retirement plans. That's the really sad part.
HEMMER: And they paid a price the past week.
CAFFERTY: Well...
HEMMER: Some would say it was simply a slap on the hand when you compare about the billions...
CAFFERTY: Well, yes.
HEMMER: ... of dollars lost...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Do the math for a minute. Jack Grubman supposedly made...
HEMMER: Right.
CAFFERTY: ... about $15 to $20 million a year for a number of years.
HEMMER: Right.
CAFFERTY: So, let's say he made $100 million. Let's say, he paid half of that to the government in taxes. It leaves him with 50. He was fined $15 million for the garbage that he put out as an analyst. So, he walks away with 35 million in his pocket, and they said, oh, well, you can never be in the financial industry again. Give me $35 million, I walk out of here right now, never to darken these doors again. I mean...
HEMMER: You know, it's...
WILLIS: I mean, Jack, it was also the firms themselves.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
WILLIS: Their fines didn't add much to very much at all...
CAFFERTY: No.
WILLIS: ... particularly if you compared it to their profit line.
CAFFERTY: Absolutely.
WILLIS: Just, you know, nothing, a slap on the hand for these guys.
CAFFERTY: Ridiculous.
WILLIS: So frustrating.
CAFFERTY: They're all patting themselves on the back, you know, Elliot Spitzer (ph) and the rest of them. Nobody is in jail, which means, you know, it's a matter of time that it will all happen again.
HEMMER: And normally, Gerri, he waits until 10:01 to hit the tunnel.
WILLIS: Well, there we go.
HEMMER: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 2, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Are you getting KO'ed by your 401(k)? You might need to rethink your retirement, some anyway.
Andy Serwer is working nights. Gerri Willis working mornings with us "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you.
GERRI WILLIS, "SMARTMONEY" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Good to see you.
HEMMER: So, there are others working into their golden years, coming out of retirement in some cases going back to work.
WILLIS: You bet. Well, you know, it's not a big surprise. We've had three years of a bear market, right? People are seeing their 401(k)'s tank.
But guess what? There is some surprises when you look at some research out from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. They see that 65 percent of people say they want to continue working into retirement, because they want to stay involved and they enjoy working, which I think is a big surprise. Only 33 percent here saying they need the money.
HEMMER: And if that's the case, though, and if they've got to go back to work, finding jobs, difficult?
WILLIS: Well, you know, it used to be, right? I mean, the problem with if you were retired before was that you would lose part of your social security benefits or your pension. You compromised the retirement benefits you already had in place. Not the case anymore. We'll be talking about that very soon.
HEMMER: Yes, it might have been a story back in 1997 and 1998 when the Nasdaq was, what, around 15,000, Jack?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You wonder, though, how much of this forced exit from retirement might have been caused by the skullduggery of some of the Wall Street firms and the kind of misleading advice that was given by people like Jack Grubman...
HEMMER: That's right.
CAFFERTY: ... you know,, before the implosion of the market and the loss of so much value in people's 401(k)'s and retirement plans. That's the really sad part.
HEMMER: And they paid a price the past week.
CAFFERTY: Well...
HEMMER: Some would say it was simply a slap on the hand when you compare about the billions...
CAFFERTY: Well, yes.
HEMMER: ... of dollars lost...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Do the math for a minute. Jack Grubman supposedly made...
HEMMER: Right.
CAFFERTY: ... about $15 to $20 million a year for a number of years.
HEMMER: Right.
CAFFERTY: So, let's say he made $100 million. Let's say, he paid half of that to the government in taxes. It leaves him with 50. He was fined $15 million for the garbage that he put out as an analyst. So, he walks away with 35 million in his pocket, and they said, oh, well, you can never be in the financial industry again. Give me $35 million, I walk out of here right now, never to darken these doors again. I mean...
HEMMER: You know, it's...
WILLIS: I mean, Jack, it was also the firms themselves.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
WILLIS: Their fines didn't add much to very much at all...
CAFFERTY: No.
WILLIS: ... particularly if you compared it to their profit line.
CAFFERTY: Absolutely.
WILLIS: Just, you know, nothing, a slap on the hand for these guys.
CAFFERTY: Ridiculous.
WILLIS: So frustrating.
CAFFERTY: They're all patting themselves on the back, you know, Elliot Spitzer (ph) and the rest of them. Nobody is in jail, which means, you know, it's a matter of time that it will all happen again.
HEMMER: And normally, Gerri, he waits until 10:01 to hit the tunnel.
WILLIS: Well, there we go.
HEMMER: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
