Takin' It To The Street

Opinion

Taking It To The Streets: Worried About Your Finances?

Tewksbury residents at the Tewksbury Recreation Complex give their opinions on the economy.

By B Schill
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August 15, 2011

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"Honestly I just know it's going up and down right now," said Robert Herceg with his dog Emma. "If I knew why is that, I would probably do something different." When asked if he was affected by the changes, he said, "Oh sure, of course it does. It's my 401k and it affects the economy...I look at it as a long term. Long term, it always goes up. There are ups and downs...my philosophy is I cannot worry about things I cannot control."

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"I don't think the stock market affects it in particular, I think the economy in general affects those things hugely," said Don Peterson. "I think it's horrible and it affects everybody who works and who wants to work in this country. And until there is a change in the White House, and a serious change, a broom sweeping, there will be no improvement."

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"I don't think the market affects either one of us," Joanne Roy said of herself and her sister. "I'm interested in watching it, but just a curiosity. I think the news is just hyping it up."

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"Honestly I just know it's going up and down right now," said Robert Herceg with his dog Emma. "If I knew why is that, I would probably do something different." When asked if he was affected by the changes, he said, "Oh sure, of course it does. It's my 401k and it affects the economy...I look at it as a long term. Long term, it always goes up. There are ups and downs...my philosophy is I cannot worry about things I cannot control."

Credit B Schill

"The economy? Oh my God, the economy is a disaster," said David Bohenko with grandson James. "We have too many issues, too many problems. We try to be the big brother to all these foreign countries but we gotta stop doing that, we gotta protect ourselves...A lot of people are hurting, cutting back on their cable, cutting back on other issues, and it's not good. It's not going to be a quick fix."

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"I don't really know that much about the stock market...It bothered me that things are unsettled like that, up and down," said Richard Martineau. "It really hasn't affected me because I don't have the 401k. I'm concerned about it because it's not stable for our country, to be going up and down like that."

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"I think that it's unfortunate that all the people that have their money in the 401Ks are losing money left and right," said Theresa Gallagher of North Reading. "To see the people that are losing $15,000, $16,000 out of their 401Ks, it's upsetting. It's devastating for those people who worked so hard to save for a future that who knows what's going to happen now?

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The roller coaster nature of the stock market is no secret. On Thursday the U.S stock market fell about 6.5 percent, enough to be called a "panic," this according to dailymarkets.com.

Forced selling by hedge funds and "panicky selling by people who watch too much TV during the day" were to blame for the drop, according to the site. The good news is that on Friday the Dow rebounded to close with a gain of 125 points.

Regardless of the week ending on a gain, people have been paying attention to market fluctuations, specifically pertaining to how they affect 401Ks and retirement plans. Tewksbury Patch caught up with several residents to see how they felt about the market and how it affected them.

About this column: "Takin' It To The Street" does exactly that. Tewksbury Patch goes out into the community to get residents' opinions on timely topics. Related Topics: Taking it to the Streets and economy Tewksbury MA