The Savings Game (Pt. 3) - Blindsided
	The Savings Game (Pt 3) Blindsided HOLMES: Jerry Jacobs and his wife Ruth planned to visit the 50 states when they retired. Then at age 65, they were blindsided when their nest egg vanished. Mr. JACOBS: After the war was over, I got home in '46 and I met Ruth. And then we were married in 1947. We've been married 52 years. Along the way, we had three daughters and we had a very happy, comfortable life together. I--I wasn't able to buy Cadillacs or Mercedes, but we had Oldsmobiles, etc. But we were what you would call middle class. Mrs. JACOBS: I was home raising the children and we didn't have a lot of money, but we managed fine. And then when Jerry went to work for Schwartz Brothers, we thought, `Oh, well, this is going to be great. We don't have to worry.' Mr. JACOBS: The distributor I worked for--their name was Schwartz Brothers. And they were record distributors from way back. They probably started right after World War II. And they started up very small and they became very big. Schwartz Brothers, to be a nice neighbor, they said, `Jerry, you're--you're going to be the vice president of sales and promotion and since you are involved and since you are an officer of the company'--because it was a public company, it was on the stock market and everything was in--written out, `you will be involved with our pension plan.' The retirement deal was for 10 years. The amount of the money was $200,000, which means I would get $20,000 a year for 10 years. And that would be--that would be my retirement plan. And at that time, I felt, well, if that plan works, I don't really have to do anything. Now these bosses of mine I'd been with for 32 years. But they got so big that they didn't want to tell me themselves, so they had the vice president of finance come--call me in his office and he said, `Jerry, I got bad news. Your retirement is not going to be given to you because they didn't fund the re--the--it's called divert compensation and they didn't fund it, which means there's no money.' Mrs. JACOBS: It was like--like the floor opened up, you know, and--and I fell in. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that the company wouldn't have protected him. Mr. JACOBS: I was shocked because I thought, `Gee, wow! Is this--is this true? Can this really happen? Can they--there's no protection? The government didn't protect me?' Mrs. JACOBS: It happened and we have to learn to live with it. And it's--I really don't like talking about it because it brings it all back. Mr. JACOBS: The company, although I lost my pension, they did have put into effect a profit-sharing plan. And because I was an officer of the company, my portion of profit sharing was higher than others and I came out with a fairly amount of money which I invested in--with a stockbroker in the stock market. My finances came from work. And if you didn't work, you didn't get paid, so I had to continue working. You know, I had no alternative. Wow, does that look good. I work part-time with Bloomingdale's department store. I demonstrate different things. Two days I worked last week is--is a pittance, but if I work six weeks during Christmas, then I can pick up, you know, maybe close to $2,000, which helps. That helps. HOLMES: Did you really think that you, at 75, though, would be working still? Mr. JACOBS: No, no, no. No, I never thought I'd be working. I'm hap--I'm happy to do it but I'm--at 75 years old, no, I--I didn't think I'd be working. I thought we'd be sailing. HOLMES: Twice as many women live in poverty during retirement than do men. Until five months ago, Nancy Thrall thought her financial future was secure. Now she's in the middle of a divorce and trying to pick up the pieces. Ms. THRALL: If somebody would have said three years ago that I would be here at this point, I would have laughed. And what you see around me is something which is a transitional part of my life and also my son's. It's a gorgeous house, gorgeous property, but people driving by, what they don't see is the financial withdrawal of what the occupants of the house are going through right now. It is that financial crunch that we're experiencing. The transition, which is difficult, is that there are so many unknowns right now financially, even some emotional that are going on, so--and we're just trying to go with it. I think perhaps a lot of women might be like myself, where the husband is the major breadwinner, takes care of a lot of the financial matters and you just allow it to happen. You don't question it, because for a long period it seems to work. It's when it doesn't work, then is when you start asking questions. I wondered if we weren't overextended at certain parts. I think there was a lot of pressure on my husband to do the financial part of it. We're at the stage where you have to put everything down on paper and your whole life--or your married life is reduced to dollars and cents, assets, liabilities right now, and it's painful. The funds that we have--I've been cut off and that apparently is part of the process that you have to go through, is separating out his and hers and--and ours. But there wasn't, on my part, any hers. HOLMES: What is your financial situation personally? Ms. THRALL: On my side, for my son and I, we only have a couple hundred dollars. HOLMES: So you live with the threat of things being turned off? Ms. THRALL: Every day. The ladies of this community have pulled together and we--my son and I are being the recipients of their generosity right now. We've received actual cash donations from some of the neighbors. They're helping with food. HOLMES: So it's almost that you don't know where your next meal is. Is it--is it that--to that point? Ms. THRALL: I hate to say that but, yes, it is. It is. Whatever we were going to do together to be old and gray in our rocking chairs isn't going to be what's happening. And you have to figure out a way, whatever it is, for starting over just the necessities of life and that is the basics--the food, the--the roof over your head, the clothing. Unidentified Boy: This is the fourth fish I've caught and the fifth fish we've all caught. Ms. THRALL: Retirement right now is something I cannot even afford. It's--it's putting money aside for the future when we need that money right here, right now. We're not there yet. I'm 46 years old and I'll need to start over in a lot of respects and I mean start over perhaps from zero. Ms. SUZE ORMAN (Financial Guru): Reality is one out of two marriages end up in divorce. The number-one reason they end up in divorce is arguments over money.