Guy Lortie and his wife, Winnie Lortie, wait for friends to arrive at North Bend Senior Center on Thursday. A talkative fellow, Guy Lortie gets quiet when the topic shifts to retirement savings. World Photo by Madeline Steege

Guy Lortie loves to talk. Just ask his wife.

Winnie Lortie shakes her head and admits it can be hard to get a word in when Guy gets going.

Seated at the North Bend Senior Center on Thursday, he joked about his youthful escapades, greeted friends coming by for lunch and spoke in solemn tones about the sorry economy.

The one sure-fire way to silence Guy Lortie is to ask about his investments.

“I’m not going to say a thing,” he said, then pretended to button up his lips.

It’s a subject many people are reluctant to talk about these days. At least with journalists. Financial advisers, on the other hand, are inundated with calls from jittery investors.

“We’ve had more calls and more meetings with our clients,” said Richard Chiesa, a financial adviser with Coquille Valley Financial Management in Myrtle Point.

He said the hardest issue he’s dealing with now is dissuading people from acting on their emotions. With the stock market swooning, he tells his clients they should hold onto stocks — and buy even more if they can.

“You know, if you sell out, whatever declines you had, you lock that in,” he said. “Try not to invade your accounts.”

People who have retired or are considering retirement should be especially prudent, Chiesa said.

“They need to revisit goals and look at where they’re going and what’s the time frame,” he said.

Diverse asset allocation — investing in a variety of domestic and foreign stocks and bonds — is the key to staying afloat, he said.

“The problem is, fear is gripping people right now,” he said. “We have to look at things logically and not emotionally.”

So far, most of Chiesa’s clients have followed his advice and resisted the urge to sell. He’s confident they’ll be rewarded when the economic situation eventually resolves itself.

Jim Bennett also has faith the markets will turn around. He’s just not sure when.

A retired union electrician from Charleston, Bennett got into the bond market in the 1980s, then stocks and mutual funds. His returns were solid until 1999, when the dot-com bubble burst. He estimates he lost about $150,000 that year, but the experience didn’t scare him off.

“I’ve always stayed in and it’s always turned around,” he said.

But now retired and having lost about $20,000 in the past six months, Bennett finally decided it was time.

“I don’t believe it’s going to come back that fast,” he said.

He still has some money in mutual funds and hasn’t ruled out a return to the stock market.

“I still believe you can get into it. Just be careful,” he said.

Chiesa encourages people not to overextend themselves. He says people have gotten used to getting too much credit too easily.

“One of the things I hope will happen is we’ll all have a more reasonable expectation for living within our means,” he said. “I hope people will do that. I hope our government will do that.”

A common remark from investment counselors these days is, “I don’t have a crystal ball.”

Chiesa admits to that. So does Chuck Holloway, a financial adviser with Edward Jones in North Bend.

“I know that there is a crisis going on,” Holloway said. “How long it will go on, nobody knows.”

He agrees with Chiesa’s belief that Americans have gotten too used to things coming easily.

“Retirement is a problem for people,” Holloway said. “In America, for some reason, we believe, ‘I’ve worked and so we deserve a retirement.’ Unfortunately, we’ve gotten used to everything getting paid for. Well, baby boomers won’t have that luxury.”

He said most people expect to get 80 percent of their retirement income from Social Security, and 20 percent from savings.

“In reality, what retired people are saying is they’re living off 94 percent Social Security and 6 percent savings,” he said.

His best advice: Figure out what you need in order to live. If you can’t make ends meet, look for places to cut back.

Holloway also said now is not the time to sell stocks and bonds. But he knows first-hand that waiting for the market to turn around can be tense.

“I don’t have any clients who lost anything, because they haven’t sold anything,” Holloway said. “I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they should sell out, or not. The answer is, I’m not selling anything. If they tell me they’re 60 and may need it in a couple years, the answer is, I’m almost 62.”

Not everyone is worried about the economy. Merle Brooks, who was in the senior center kitchen in North Bend on Thursday, has found his own recipe for peace of mind: No debt and no stocks. His money is in the bank, and he minds it carefully.

“I live within my means,” he said. “If I can’t afford something, I don’t get it.”