“I don’t want to look.” That’s what Carol Lieberman says about some funds she set up for her grandchildren. She fears the money is shrinking in the current recession and financial crisis.

Carol works in Cambridge as director of a program that helps older people to volunteer. Asked if those people are worried about the situation, she says: “It’s not just seniors – it’s everybody, all brackets of society.”

A call to Mary Ann Dalton, who works mostly with low-income people in Somerville and Cambridge, reveals widespread concern about the rise in costs of almost everything, especially food. There has been some relief, however: home heating prices, expected to be high, have fallen over the past months.

At Mary Ann’s agency, Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, the number of calls about food stamps has doubled lately. So have inquiries about older people needing to move to public housing, or to move in with adult children. And, surprisingly, there have been calls about finding dental care.

I’m indebted to Patrick Rafter of RetirementJobs.com for putting me in touch with three people who themselves are coping with the current crisis. Patrick’s agency specializes in finding jobs for people over 50 and offers a wide variety of services connected with this effort.

Ken Berkowitz of Westford, unemployed since 2007, says of his plight: “We’re not starving or anything but it’s a bad situation.” He was hoping to pay off the loans of his son, a medical student. He expects the extension of unemployment insurance payments for another 13 weeks to help him meet some expenses.

A current resident of Colorado, MaryAnn W. Albert, wants to find a job back in her native Massachusetts. “Yeah, I’m hurting,” she says of her current fix. Because she is a public employee, her Social Security funds will be cut back and she had to declare bankruptcy four years ago. “Divorced people don’t catch up,” she observes.

Dick Hubbell of South Dennis is a 72-year old executive who feels his age a handicap. “I’m definitely looking to go back to work because of the current financial mess that the US is in,” he says, but he has not yet found a job.

For my age peers, the current crisis will bring back uncomfortable memories of the Great Depression. Some of us can recall hearing stories about middle-class people reduced to subsistence living.

We may also remember looking at the graphic photos by Walker Evans of people beggared by unemployment. And others among us had members of our immediate family brought low by 1930’s poverty.

The current recession does not equal that depression for distress, fortunately, but dramatic losses in investments and massive job layoffs bring out fears of worse to come.

This new crisis is made greater since the world markets are so much more extensive. What happens in Beijing or Tokyo has an immediate impact on the United States and vice versa. We share with other nations giant threats to our financial wellbeing.

Throughout, the complexity of the financial markets has bewildered most of us whose skills in economics remain minimal. But we feel shock that the so-called experts seem unable to cope with the situation too. Will even Barack Obama’s team of formidable economic brains be able to put the pieces back together again?

Even before the present crisis, experts in financial planning have been advising people nearing normal retirement age to plan on staying in the workforce longer than they had planned. Too many workers were expecting to leave the job too early, leaving themselves exposed to the danger of their money running out before their life span does.

On this topic,  Alicia Munnell, of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, writes about those who retire early: “A great many will risk income shortfalls, especially at older ages.” She believes that the current average retirement age for American men, 63, is too early for financial security.

Now with the crisis, that advice has taken on new urgency. Fewer people are going to have enough assets to allow for retirement in their early sixties. In order to be prepared for the expenses of later life, they will have to tack on at least several years, if their health allows, before they step away from the office or the shop.  Or, possibly, find other jobs to assure income.

The nation must live with uncertainly for the immediate future. Stock market falls of hundreds of points will perhaps be standard fare for many days during the months ahead. And though many pros predict recovery sometime during the coming year, no one knows for certain.

Maybe it’s time to live more simply, accustoming ourselves to austerity, not buying so much. Experts may tell us that this approach is not good for the economy. Perhaps not, but may it not be good for our souls?