Seniors Sour Over Prime Rate Cuts

(CBS)  This is the 12th in a month-long series of reports called "Making Ends Meet" about how families are coping with the tough economy, unemployment and smaller retirement accounts.

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Joanne Golder says she's been dealt a bad hand by the Federal Reserve.

"It's not good for senior citizens," says Golder.

Like many of her fellow retirees, Golder's income depends on the interest from her savings. But, as CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports, when those interest rates go down, so does her income.

"It's a difference in my income of almost $250 a month," says Golder. "Everyone says, 'low rates – hey, good news - buying cars, buying houses.'

"Seniors aren't doing that anymore, they're not buying houses anymore or cars."

Retired nurse Betty Houghton has had to cut back on just about everything.

"It's gotten pretty bad," says Houghton. "I don't go to the movies, I don't buy clothes, I don't eat out."

Norrace Todd spent his whole life building for a secure retirement.

Todd planned out his retirement based on a much higher return, like the six or seven percent he was getting just a couple of years ago. Now he'll have to dig into his principal.

"You save your money for a rainy day, right?" asks Todd. "Well, it's raining."

Frank Kaiser puts it more bluntly.

"I think seniors have been going through a financial rape," says Kaiser.

Kaiser writes an advocacy column for senior citizens and gets mail from readers across the country. He says they are not just hurting, "they're hurting hard."

What's worse, Kaiser says, is that seniors have little in the way of other prospects.

"I talk to seniors all the time who are looking for work," says Kaiser.
"They'll be bag boys; they'll say, "Do you want fries with that?"

"They can't even get those jobs."

Shirley Ann Ashcroft has found a job: training the Clearwater Rocky-ettes, who are performing a lot better than their money these days.

Gloria Marsilia, a Rocky-ette, says she feels a little shortchanged.

"Thank God Shirley Ann only charges $3 per class," says Marsilia.

It's one of the few luxuries these ladies can afford as they tap their way into an uncertain future: an increasingly rocky financial future.