Tariff-induced market swings have older NC workers delaying retirement plans
Deborah Klinger has dedicated half her life to counseling individuals, couples and families in need of emotional healing.
She considers herself lucky that she still loves the work and is healthy and strong enough at age 69 to keep doing it, because since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, she’s afraid to cut her hours.
Klinger’s husband, also 69, plans to hold onto his part-time church-musician job, too, along with all the side gigs he can manage.
“Our financial adviser had made a plan that would enable us to retire at 70 if we chose,” Klinger told The News & Observer last week. The couple has worked hard to build a retirement nest egg, living on her husband’s gigs and what Klinger makes in her private practice in Durham, while investing nearly everything he gets paid from the church.
While they didn’t expect to stop working, Klinger said, “It was nice to know that I could if I wanted, or see fewer clients for a while if I wanted, just to have a little more flexibility.”
Then, on April 2, Trump instituted 10% tariffs on imports from all countries — drastically higher on goods from China — kicking off a global trade war and sending markets into historic freefalls. While markets had recovered some of the losses as of Monday, April 14, they were still well below the levels before Trump began his second term and some economists fear a possible recession looms.
Klinger and her husband have stopped musing about shorter work days.
“Now, I’m like, well, I can’t retire anytime soon,” she said. “I certainly hope I stay healthy and strong because I’m going to have to keep working.”
Since his inauguration, Trump has issued more than 100 executive orders taking a wide range of actions. Besides the tariffs, he has taken aim at immigrants, abortion rights and diversity efforts.
With his billionaire-friend Elon Musk directing the Department of Government Efficiency, the president has dismantled federal agencies and canceled federal funding for international aid and domestic research, including work to cure cancer and other diseases.
Worries about Social Security and Medicare
Klinger said that like other seniors, she’s worried about the future of Social Security and Medicare.
“I think about what this country will be like,” Klinger said. “I worry about the big picture, about Project 2025 and turning the country into an autocracy. I worry a lot.”
Among her clients are students at nearby Duke University, where two international graduate students recently saw their visas terminated.
On Saturday, April 5, Klinger attended the “Hands Off!” protest in downtown Durham, one of some 1,300 held across the country in opposition to the president’s policies.
She said she was disappointed that most of the people she saw there “were my demographic: old white folks,” but was relieved to see people out in the streets.
“There was a sense of solidarity and cohesiveness,” she said. “It was heartening to be a part of it.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
