THE TIMES POLL : Good Times in O.C. Made Secure Retirement Easier : But the soured economy of late has made many of those still working pessimistic about their prospects.

It is a hellish problem with different answers for each generation: how to save enough for the costs, let alone the pleasures, of old age.

For most senior citizens in Orange County today, a recent Times Poll indicates, history was kind.

To finance their retirement, many are enjoying benefits from Southern California’s booming real estate years, a Social Security System that is still living up to its promise, and a local economy that had long been prosperous.

As a result, the median income for Orange County seniors is near the top 10% nationwide and the rate of poverty for those 60 and older is less than half that of California’s.

Eighty-four percent of the county’s seniors told The Times Poll that they are financially secure, demonstrating more confidence in their wallets than any other age group.

“In general, more people plan for retirement in Orange County than elsewhere,” said James Owens, a local financial consultant. “Here you have a situation where someone in Garden Grove, Anaheim or Santa Ana bought their home for $50,000, now it’s worth $300,000, and it’s paid for. So, of course, they’ve planned for retirement. You’re sampling in a very affluent area.”

But many of Orange County’s non-elderly adults don’t expect things to be the same for them, according to the poll.

A third of those ages 18 to 59 are quite pessimistic, saying they do not expect that all of their income from savings, pensions or Social Security will be enough to provide for an adequate retirement. And a similar percentage say they do not expect Social Security to exist when they would be eligible.

The different conditions facing the generations are epitomized in their expectations about employment as seniors. About half the county’s non-elderly say they expect to be working at age 65, far more than the 15% of those over 65 in the labor force today.

“The seniors today were making money when money was flowing well,” said Jim Russell, 37, a tugboat captain from Huntington Beach. “Now, people my age are really struggling just to make ends meet, let alone prepare for retirement.”

Russell said he does not believe that Social Security will be available for his retirement. And he expects that his financial security in old age will be entirely dependent on his own ability to put away savings and build up a pension.

“As a middle- to upper-middle-class person, I’m going to have to take care of my own retirement,” he said. “I think I’ll have enough money. If I’m 65 and I’m tired of working, I think I will have a choice.”

The Times Poll, directed by John Brennan, surveyed 1,128 people in Orange County during five days in December. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Those 60 years of age and older were oversampled to provide a larger group for analysis. The sampling error for this group is plus or minus 5 percentage points. The survey does not include institutionalized elderly, which represents about 3.5% of the county’s senior population.

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The average income for Orange County’s seniors is $24,629. But the income level does not reflect the assets Orange County’s seniors have accumulated in their homes, savings and retirement accounts. Still, it is about 20% higher than the state average of $20,678 for those 60 and over and it is near the top 10% nationwide, according to the 1990 census.

“Drive around Leisure World and there are banks on every corner (because) there’s a lot of money there,” said Frank Sande, a realtor who caters to the retirement community. “People moving in now don’t need financing (for a house); they come with cash.”

The high income level means that many seniors in Orange County will be impacted by President Clinton’s proposal to increase the tax on the wealthiest Social Security recipients. Clinton’s proposal would trigger higher taxes for individuals with incomes over $25,000 and family incomes of more than $32,000.

The relative affluence of county seniors is also seen in poverty figures, which show that 5.1% of the county’s seniors are below the poverty line--about half the rate for the rest of California. The figure is also lower than the 8.5% poverty rate for all of Orange County.

County officials say, however, that the number of seniors working or turning to government programs for assistance is increasing, particularly with Southern California’s souring economy.

The 1990 census found 33,027 people 65 and older still working. That’s about 15% of the 220,000 in the county who have reached retirement age.

And while the poll found that many seniors who work are affluent, Stephanie Benshoff, director of the county’s Senior Training and Employment Program, sees the elderly who need jobs to pay their bills.

Benshoff’s office employs up to 150 low-income seniors who work 20 hours a week at the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour. The STEP program is so overwhelmed, she said, that it refers up to 40 seniors a month to other job placement programs in the county.

“There are many seniors out there who are victims of hard economic times, the cost of living, and unexpected illnesses,” Benshoff said. “We are seeing more and more seniors who are one paycheck away from becoming homeless.”

Jim and Yvonne Walters of Anaheim have been employed by the STEP program since last July. Jim Walters, 60, was laid off more than two years ago from a manufacturing job that paid about $35,000 annually.

Now, the couple work together, keeping records of the 1,100 volunteers who participate in the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County. At night they attend desktop publishing classes at the Regional Occupation Program, a state-funded job retraining school in Anaheim.

Yvonne, 62, says she and her husband hope to start their own desktop publishing business. “We don’t have an abundance of savings,” Yvonne Walters said. “This job and our small earnings keep us from becoming destitute.”

Rafaela Garcia, 79, is a former Rockwell assembler from Orange who has had to work well past her retirement to pay the bills. Her husband, Enrique, 69, installs aluminum doors for a living, but recently the number of jobs has dwindled, she said.

Now, Rafaela Garcia works four hours every day at a senior center in El Modena, filing records, monitoring the volunteers and telling seniors about services available to the elderly.

“A lot of older people feel they are too old to work because they haven’t been in (the job market) for so long and won’t be able to do what’s expected of them,” Garcia said. “But I feel like I have to work to make up for what I don’t have. It’s not a lot, but it helps to pay the bills.”

In addition to those who work because they need the money, the senior work force also includes many who are employed so they can stay active.

James L. Goddard, 70, is among those who work because it is stimulating.

Goddard, who lives in Leisure World Laguna Hills, is a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a former chief of the Communicable Diseases Center (now the Center for Disease Control). He also worked as a population adviser for the government of India.

With such a sterling resume, Goddard now serves as an expert witness in lawsuits involving pharmaceutical and medical products. For some cases, he prepares by reading up to four cartons of legal and medical documents.

“I work because I enjoy it,” he said. “It creates a situation where I have to keep learning and that’s an important part of my life. It keeps me younger and I am able to maintain a good perspective on life.”

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If they had any advice for enjoying old age, the seniors in The Times Poll seemed to be telling their successors that planning for retirement should make those years more enjoyable.

About 88% of the county’s seniors say they are “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their lives. And the level of satisfaction is higher among those who did the most planning.

Almost seven in 10 of the elderly who say they did a great deal of planning for retirement say they are “very satisfied” with their lives compared to just 39% of those who say they did no planning.

“They need to face goals . . . for saving money, force themselves to save a portion of that paycheck,” said Helen Louise Henry, 67, of Garden Grove. “I’ve always wanted to put a third of my income into a savings or pension for the future. But without a career, I never made enough money.”

Many of the county’s Baby Boom (30- to 44-year-old) and middle-age (45- to 59-year-old) residents are trying to face up to retirement, the poll found. Nearly three-quarters of them say they regularly put aside money for retirement in addition to Social Security, and about half say they have done “a good amount” of planning for old age.

But the success of those efforts varies.

William Bracken, 54, is a Costa Mesa computer consultant who says that he hasn’t saved enough for his retirement. Bracken said he began setting aside about 5% of his salary for retirement about 15 years ago, and now saves up to 20%.

“Hindsight is wonderful, but when you’re young and have to make mortgage payments and raise kids, saving for retirement is not among your priorities,” said Bracken, a father of three. “Now we’re playing catch-up.”

Among seniors, three-quarters say they put aside money regularly in addition to Social Security, and two-thirds say they did “a good amount” of planning for their retirement years.

Just 11% say they did no planning at all.

As a result, nearly four of five Orange County seniors believe that they prepared adequately for retirement. That’s substantially higher than the 65% nationwide, who answered The Times Poll four years ago.

But the poll also indicates that planning for retirement may be the luxury of those who have enough income to set aside. The county’s low-income seniors did far less financial planning for old age than higher-income people.

Donna Fleming, a 57-year-old nurse, said she is approaching old age with some trepidation because her income does not allow her to save much and she does not expect Social Security to be available. She also said she does not expect a pension because nurses rarely work in one place long enough to qualify for one.

“It’s a little scary, to say the least,” said Fleming, who has worked as a nurse for about 30 years. “It just seems like the way things are going, (Social Security) is not going to be something that you can depend on. . . . It’s not going to be enough to put the beans on my table.

Fleming said she expects to work past retirement age to pay her living expenses.

“One of the beauties of being a nurse is that you can work until you just can’t work any more,” she said. “In my particular case, there won’t be enough for me to retire at 65. So as long as I continue to enjoy working, I can continue to do my job.”

Times librarian Sheila A. Kern, Times statistical analyst Maureen Lyons and Times assistant poll director Susan Pinkus contributed to the research for this article.

Retirement and Financial Security

Orange County seniors are more secure in their finances than other age groups in the county. They also are more likely than younger groups to own a house and to have planned for a comfortable retirement. Younger adults are more likely to see themselves working after 65.

Orange County seniors are more secure in their personal finances than any age group locally or their elderly counterparts nationwide.

18-29 30-44 45-59 60 and Total years years years older Very secure 17% 10% 15% 23% 27% Fairly secure 53% 48% 57% 51% 57% Fairly shaky 17% 21% 18% 12% 9% Very shaky 12% 19% 9% 11% 7% Don ‘t know 1% 2% 1% 3% -

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Orange County Nationwide Very secure 27% 11% Fairly secure 57% 47% Fairly shaky 9% 22% Very shaky 7% 17% Don’t know - 2%

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Residents 60 and older planned more for retirement than the county’s younger adults do now. And they are also more likely to have put aside money for retirement than younger people are doing now.

How much planning?

60 and 59 and older younger Great deal 28% 15% Good amount 38% 25% Not too much 23% 36% None at all 11% 24%

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Put aside money?

60 and 59 and older younger Yes 74% 64% No 24% 36% Don’t know 2% -

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Seniors rely more on Social Security for income than any other source. Younger people expect to tap many of the same resources, but nearly two-thirds do not expect to rely on Social Security.

60 and older are using Social Security: 64% Pension: 37% Stocks: 19% Real estate: 16% Work: 15% Savings: 10% IRA/Keough: 10% CDs: 7% Mutual funds: 5% Life insurance: 4% Money market funds: 4% Other: 8% Don’t know: 6% *

59 and younger expect to use Social Security: 37% Pension: 37% Savings: 22% IRA/Keough: 15% Work: 14% Real estate: 13% Stocks: 12% Investments: 10% Life insurance: 7% Mutual funds: 4% Inheritance: 4% Other: 11% Don’t know: 13% Note: Numbers do not add up to 100% because respondents could choose more than one category.

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While only about one person in four among those 60 and older works at least part time, fully half those 59 and younger expect to do so when they reach age 65.

60 and older 59 and younger (current status) (expectation) Work full time 12% 20% Work part time 8% 30% Self-employed 7% - Retired/other 73% 45% Don’t know less than 1% 5%

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The vast majority of Orange County retirees say they prepared adequately for retirement; nationwide the proportion is smaller.

Orange County United States* Yes, prepared 78% 65% No 21% 33% Don’t know 1% 2%

* April, 1989

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Most seniors receive Social Security or believe when they retire it will still exist. Very few younger adults receive Social Security, and many of those who do not receive payments say it will not exist when they retire.

60 and 18-29 30-44 45-59 older Currently receive some Social 4% 8% 6% 82% Security help No Social Security income; 52% 34% 60% 15% it will still exist No Social Security income; 34% 45% 26% 1% it won’t exist Don’t know 10% 13% 8% 2%

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Three-quarters of the county’s elderly say their savings, pensions and Social Security are sufficient to provide an adequate retirement; younger people are less certain.

60 and 18-29 30-44 45-59 older Yes, prepared 51% 64% 61% 75% No 37% 32% 31% 21% Don’t know 12% 4% 8% 4%

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Home ownership, a significant financial asset, is a status already achieved by the vast majority of the elderly.

60 and 18-29 30-44 45-59 older Live rent-free 24% 4% 1% 2% Own home 26% 60% 77% 81% Rent 50% 36% 22% 16% Don’t know - - - 1%

Source: Los Angeles Times Poll

HOW THE POLL WAS CONDUCTED

The Times Poll interviewed 1,128 adult residents of Orange County, by telephone, Dec. 4 through 8. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the county and random-digit dialing techniques were used to ensure that both listed and non-listed numbers had an opportunity to be contacted. Results were weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and household size. Interviewing was conducted in English and Spanish. Those aged 60 and over were oversampled in order to provide a larger group for analysis; their answers are weighted to their proper proportions in the population when the responses of all adults are cited. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For certain subgroups, the error margin is somewhat higher. For example, the sampling error for those 60 and over is plus or minus 5 points. Poll results can also be affected by other factors such as question wording and the order in which questions are presented.