Tue Dec 17, 6:57 PM ET 

By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer

WASHINGTON - Stock market woes have hit older Americans particularly hard, with two in three saying they have been forced to change their lifestyles and one in five postponing retirement, according to an AARP survey.

More than half of respondents ages 50 to 70 said they are budgeting more carefully, a third said they are taking fewer vacations and less than a third have postponed making a major purchase.

The telephone poll of 789 people who said they lost money in stocks was conducted Nov. 15 through Dec. 5 by International Communications Research for AARP, which represents people over age 50. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Nearly 40 percent of people surveyed who lost money are retirees, and of those, a third said they have returned to work.

Of respondents who said they have delayed retirement, 72 percent had planned to retire before age 65, and virtually all had expected to retire before age 70. Now only 31 percent said they expect to retire before age 65, and 22 percent expect to retire after age 69.

David Certner, AARP's federal affairs director, said the survey shows the need for stronger investment and pension protections and better financial education. It also highlights the importance of Social Security (news - web sites) to retirement security, he said.

"Social Security remains for most the only source of guaranteed, lifelong, inflation-protected income in retirement," he said.

In other findings:

• A third of respondents who lost money are still working full or part-time; 3 percent returned to work after March 2000 and are still working as a result of their losses.
• Among those not working, 12 percent said they may have to look for work in the future because of their losses.
• More than four in 10 think they will be less comfortable in retirement than they had expected, and two in 10 expect to have difficulty paying for health care and prescription drugs in retirement.