This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 28, 2008- A few mornings a week, between 5:30 and 6, the soft ring of a cell phone pulls Robin S. Davis out of sleep. It sits on the night stand beside her bed.
Davis tries to compose herself, pushing the sleepiness out of her voice.
Hello? she answers.
Are you available to sub today? she hears.
With night still hovering outside, Davis and her husband get moving. They drink their coffee. They read the Bible. She peers into her closet and chooses a sweater and slacks, none of her sharp suits, nothing a little chalk dust won't hurt.
Then, the 49-year-old leaves her Central West End home and heads to an elementary school in the Normandy School District. For the next seven hours, she's not a real estate agent who used to drive a Beemer and carry a crocodile bag.
She's a substitute teacher.
The work feels good, hard and meaningful, but it's not the direction she'd planned.
For the next seven hours, though, she won't think about the real-estate market or health insurance, her vanished 401(k) or her shrinking IRA.
She won't think about the coming years, which once stretched out with possibilities and now offer more mornings just like this.
STARTING OVER
As a kid growing up in the city, Davis wanted to be an actress. It wasn't the spotlight that attracted her, though, but the idea of stepping into different roles.
And in some ways, without a stage or cameras, she's done that anyway. After high school, Davis worked as a secretary, then a talent coordinator at an advertising firm, but she soon realized she needed a college education. She began at a community college, then transferred to Webster University, studying history and political science with an emphasis in legal studies. Davis wanted to be a lawyer and worked as a paralegal for a few years.
Over time, she held different jobs and changed course again, working in the legal department at Charter Communications as the company exploded with growth. Then, in 1999, she started managing internal operations for a construction management firm in the city. There, Davis mapped out benefits packages and retirement plans.
When the company closed in 2001, she was laid off. But Davis didn't rush to find another job. Back then, thanks to her husband's job, she had the luxury of taking time and considering her next move.
She settled on another new direction - real estate - and got her broker's license. Within a year, Davis closed between 14 and 18 sales. In her corporate career, she'd been making about $50,000. She soon matched that selling houses.
Then, adjustable rate mortgages, risky lending practices and foreclosures collided. The phone stopped ringing in her office.
Sales of regular homes offered between 7 and 8 percent commission. But commissions from foreclosures varied, and short sales offered just 2.5 percent.
Soon, Davis' $50,000 salary shrunk to $30,000. And things weren't any better for her husband, Eddie G. Davis, 61. He owns the Center for Acceleration of African American Businesses and works to help minority business owners get started or grow their businesses with an influx of money.
Even in good times, getting paid for that work wasn't a certainty. Many businesses were already on the floor, Davis says. She won't say how much her husband earns, but his business has suffered, too.
"We have certainly seen better times," she says.
With a deep dip in their income, the Davises withdrew their 401(k) last year. They stopped thinking about the future and started focusing on the present.
Davis found hours, then days free. She wanted work that fulfilled her spiritually, but would also pay for groceries and gas. So she started substitute teaching, placing her cell phone on the nightstand each night, waiting for the call.
NOT YOUR FATHER'S RETIREMENT PLAN
Retirement used to mean working for the same company for 30 years, then leaving with a gold watch and a pension.
Now, it's almost impossible to define because nothing - careers, benefits, pension plans, health care, the cost of living, life expectancy and personal fulfillment - nothing is the same.
"It's changing fairly dramatically," says John McDonald, senior state director of AARP Missouri. "And a number of factors go into it."
In 1992, 35 percent of workers had defined benefit plans, where they continued receiving some money from their company after retirement. Now, only 20 percent of workers have such programs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"We have fewer people who are supported with a retirement income from their previous employer," says Steve Fazzari, a professor of economics at Washington University and associate director of the Weidenbaum Center.
And, like Davis, few work at just one place anymore. People born in the later baby boom years held several jobs - more than 10 before they were 42, according to a July report from the BLS and the Department of Labor.
People also continue working longer. Between 1997 and 2007, the BLS reports that the number of working people 65 and older increased by 101 percent.
And many workers under 65, even with good retirement programs, must continue working to cover the cost of health insurance until Medicare kicks in. Private insurance can cost more than $1,000 a month, McDonald estimates.
Davis isn't covered by group health insurance, though private premiums aren't that much. Still, it's an expense, she says.
In April, an AARP survey reported that one in four people 45 to 54 and one in five people 55 to 64 will stay in their jobs longer, thanks to the economy. Among their reasons were sinking home values and investment portfolios, where most people's wealth resides.
Now, bring the most recent economic fiasco into the picture. McDonald doesn't have any hard data, but many near retirement age lost a substantial amount from their 401(k)s when stocks plummeted
"That's a huge amount of money," McDonald says. "That's lost wealth."
And it won't bounce back quickly.
The Davises IRA is probably worth half what it was a few years ago, Davis says. "We consider ourselves at the point of starting over with our retirement. Essentially, we are."
By 2014, the AARP estimates 65-plus aged workers will grow another 74 percent. And by that time, Davis will be 55 and her husband 67.
Even before losing income and investments, they'd always planned on working in some form or another.
"Then, it was a choice," she says. "Now, I'm gonna be working, baby. If I can put one foot in front of the other ... and at least answer the phone, if I can hear well enough and answer someone's phone, I will be working."
CALL WAITING
When the phone rings, waking her, Davis doesn't dread answering. She can't. Instead, she thinks -- I'm needed. These kids need me, a good role model in a tough school, an adult who will listen and teach them.
She spends some of her time as a real estate agent driving around, helping her clients look for properties to rent. She gets commission off the first month's rent. That's it.
She's working more for less. But Davis chooses to see the positives. There are good homes to buy at good prices. There's money to make and opportunities for everyone.
"It's like when you're riding a bike," she says, "if you fall off the bike, what do you do? You can't lay there with the bike on you, right? You have to get up, and you get back on it."
Maybe she'll get her teaching license and teach or tutor. Davis isn't sure. But now, she doesn't have time for sitting back and considering her next role.
Now, she has to keep moving.
Kristen Hare is a freelance writer in Lake St. Louis.