Jane Pauley Hosts CBS Sunday Morning's Annual Money Issue Special

Jane Pauley anchored CBS Sunday Morning's annual "Money Issue" special, dedicating the entire 90-minute broadcast to the state of American retirement at a moment when the institutions supporting it face unusual strain.

The cover story set the tone. Correspondent David Pogue examined the Social Security Administration, which had already reached its smallest staffing level in 50 years before the DOGE team under Elon Musk eliminated another 14 percent of its employees. Former Social Security commissioner Michael Astrue argued on camera that those driving the cuts do not understand the system well enough to avoid putting benefits at risk for the roughly 70 million Americans who currently receive them.

The financial architecture of retirement got its own segment. Kelefa Sanneh sat down with Ted Benna, now 83, the man credited as the father of the 401(k), who developed the savings mechanism more than four decades ago. Benna's invention has since become the default retirement vehicle for American workers, even as economists note that roughly 42 percent of younger working adults across Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X report having nothing left over after covering daily expenses, leaving little margin to fund those accounts.

Robert Costa went inside AARP's operations to show how the organization navigates policy and cultural relevance simultaneously. Drew Barrymore, 50, appeared on the cover of AARP The Magazine during the episode's reporting window, a detail the broadcast used to underline how the traditional boundary between "middle age" and "retirement planning" has effectively dissolved.

The geographic spread of the broadcast was striking. Martha Teichner visited Latitude Margaritaville, the 55-plus active community in Florida built around the late Jimmy Buffett's brand. Seth Doane reported from Malta, where American retirees are finding the cost of living dramatically lower than at home. Conor Knighton traveled to Chimp Haven in northwest Louisiana, a sanctuary housing more than 300 retired research chimpanzees, while Lee Cowan profiled a site in Arizona where restored World War II aircraft have been returned to flight.

Luke Burbank covered the FIRE movement, documenting younger Americans pursuing Financial Independence, Retire Early strategies, a counterpoint to the millions of workers who report expecting to push their retirement dates back as mounting expenses squeeze household budgets. Susan Spencer explored bucket lists, citing a study finding nine in ten participants had made one, including an 83-year-old who fulfilled her dream of driving a race car through a program run by AARP's Wish of a Lifetime initiative.

Tracy Smith rounded out the broadcast with an interview alongside comedy duo Cheech Marin, 78, and Tommy Chong, 86, who were promoting "Cheech and Chong's Last Movie" and declared they had no intention of retiring from making people laugh.

The special aired as CBS MoneyWatch data showed average household utility costs rising 12 percent year-over-year to $265 per month, and seven in ten Americans polled by CBS News reporting difficulty covering food, housing, and healthcare. The gap between the retirement the broadcast depicted and the financial conditions most viewers actually inhabit formed an unspoken throughline across nearly every segment.