Social Security

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
11,520
Location
OH
Maybe some of you who are drawing SS can answer a question for me. I am always hearing these ads on the radio for these consultants who claim they can maximize your SS benefits, and that there are thousands of pages of info in the SS guide on all of the rules and guidelines for they system. I plan on taking my benefit right at age 62 and I see no way to increase my amount of benefit other than waiting longer to take it. Is that the ONLY way to increase my retirement benefit?
 
The later in life you take SS, the closer you are to the end of your actuarial end of life. So SS will encourage you to delay the start date to save a few $$.
 
I retired at 62 vs. 66 . I put together a spreadsheet . Break even was around 7- - 72 .

When you get old enough for Medicare , get a supplement as soon as you can . If you do , in 6 months , the insurance companies have to accept you and can not charge extra for pre-existing conditions .
 
What's your family history for age at death and do you really need the money now? If parents and close relatives made it to their 80's and beyond and you have no known life shortening conditions, it's best to hold off taking it now if don't really need it. You'll thank yourself later. However, if you don't expect to see your 70's, might as well take it now.
 
First question is are you still working? If still working and getting a decent paycheck you need to wait until FRA (full retirement age) which is 66 and a few months. If you claim SS before FRA it will be reduced to zero.

If you take the SS at 62 then your benefits will be reduced for the rest of your life, but you will get COLA like everyone who gets SS.

Do you need the money? Can you wait a few years to collect?

The net is you will be better off collecting earlier if you have health issues and do not expect to live to your life expectancy as listed in mortality tables. If your healthy collect at FRA. Super healthy and can wait on the money, collect at 70.

You can start collecting at 62 and stop at any time prior to 70 then restart prior to or at 70 and it will increase your monthly check.
 
Without going into actuarial tables etc, it boils down to this. If you live longer, taking SS benefits at full retirement age or later will increase your total benefits. Of course if one dies earlier, then a moot point. If your family history has a good life expectancy and in relatively good health then taking benefits later could make sense. If otho family history life expectancy shorter and/or current health poor, then taking at 62 could make sense. Like much in life, excepting death and taxes, no guarantees.
 
Hi Grampi
I started taking SS benefits when I turned 62. I was a math major in college and did math a few times for SS benefits. I have just about become fully retired now.
With my calculations, the break even point was at about 77 years of age. In other words,lf you take benefits at 62, 66 or 70 years of age,
and make it to 77 or so, the payoff is the same for the age groups.
Now if you live longer than 77, you will make more if you delay your benefits until you are 70 because payout will be higher.
The length of your life is the unknown and therefore the gamble on SS benefits.
Your benefit is based on the highest 35 years of pay you made and reported to SS admin.
If you take SS benefits and continue to work, they will reduce your benefit if you make over $17500 if you retire at 62
So you may need to take that into consideration if you want to continue to work.
Hope this helps. The SS website also has some useful info. will be signing up for SS on website so you may as well go ahead and set up your account if you have not already done so. It is free and you can check your earnings history, potential SS payment, and a few other things.
Hope this helps

Bob
 
The longer you wait the larger your monthly check. I also seem to remember hearing something about when/how to claim when you have two individuals who are eligible to receive SSI. Perhaps this is what the Ad is talking about?
 
If you end up living a long life, delaying the start of benefits (the max you can delay is to 70 years of age) will give you significantly more money than starting at an earlier age. If you don't think you are going to make all that long than collect earlier.

Did I forget to mention that the benefit check is much, much larger at 70 than it is at 62?
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
Keep in mind SS originated at a point in time when the life expectancy was 60ish for men, and 64ish for women...


Yes they had very little chance they were going to have to pay you anything. At that time over half the people were dead by the time came to draw. If they'd left it in trust the fund would still be stable today. But now they steal from it for every reason under the sun.
 
My question is, if you do have a long life expectancy, should you start collecting early? Even though you will get less per month, won't you collect for several years longer, and with a longer life expectancy, which method yields more money?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Ws6
Keep in mind SS originated at a point in time when the life expectancy was 60ish for men, and 64ish for women...


Well, maybe when war, social diseases and smoking are skewing the numbers. But working men in non hazardous conditions have been able to live into their 70's for 200 years now. In fact the retired male's average age at death is currently just over 74 years old.

Also, the telephone has increased lifespan, due to more prompt medical attention. Consider that some people would not have survived and now do, skewing the numbers in a positive way.

Anybody who spends time at ancient graveyards will correctly note that many family men lived into their 80's.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by toneydoc
Hi Grampi
I started taking SS benefits when I turned 62. I was a math major in college and did math a few times for SS benefits. I have just about become fully retired now.
With my calculations, the break even point was at about 77 years of age. In other words,lf you take benefits at 62, 66 or 70 years of age,
and make it to 77 or so, the payoff is the same for the age groups.
Now if you live longer than 77, you will make more if you delay your benefits until you are 70 because payout will be higher.
The length of your life is the unknown and therefore the gamble on SS benefits.
Your benefit is based on the highest 35 years of pay you made and reported to SS admin.
If you take SS benefits and continue to work, they will reduce your benefit if you make over $17500 if you retire at 62
So you may need to take that into consideration if you want to continue to work.
Hope this helps. The SS website also has some useful info. will be signing up for SS on website so you may as well go ahead and set up your account if you have not already done so. It is free and you can check your earnings history, potential SS payment, and a few other things.
Hope this helps

Bob


Interesting calculation about the crossover point.

One more thing to keep in mind... Studies have shown that working longer shortens life expectancy. So chances of living past 77 years are higher if you stop working early, rather than later.

So best case scenario for the OP would be to save up some money, stop working at age 62 and live off of savings until age 66.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Originally Posted by Ws6
Keep in mind SS originated at a point in time when the life expectancy was 60ish for men, and 64ish for women...


Yes they had very little chance they were going to have to pay you anything. At that time over half the people were dead by the time came to draw. If they'd left it in trust the fund would still be stable today. But now they steal from it for every reason under the sun.

Don't forget, 12.4% of everyone's paycheck (minus anyone getting paid under the table) are paying money into the system. [It does apply to only the first $137,700 of one's taxable income, so there's that.]

OP, are you making more now than in the past? IIRC SS goes off the 35 best years of income. So if you could bump off some low income years you could bump your income. Otherwise, play with the math.
 
Originally Posted by Cujet
Originally Posted by Ws6
Keep in mind SS originated at a point in time when the life expectancy was 60ish for men, and 64ish for women...


Well, maybe when war, social diseases and smoking are skewing the numbers. But working men in non hazardous conditions have been able to live into their 70's for 200 years now.

In fact, the telephone has increased lifespan, due to more prompt medical attention.

Anybody who spends time at ancient graveyards will correctly note that many men lived into their 80's.

True that--I do believe one has to look at actuary tables for their own age in order to guess at expectancy--the "average" number tossed about in news articles includes all manners of deaths which can skew things.

When I get up to this age I kinda hope to be able to "retire" and live off investments while holding off on SS for a bit. If I lose my high income job and have to live on lower income, then I won't be somehow increasing whatever base I have in SS, so at some point I might be able to toss in the towel and know that my SS is maxed out (for me). I just have to get that other bit fixed up first (having investments!).
 
I plan to collect at about 64 1/2. that works with my budget so I would only have about a 20% dependence on my IRA Savings.

Now, Remember every year you delay or wait to collect, you are leaving a LOT of money on the table.

Just me waiting two years, I leave about 50,000.00 on the table.

How long does it take just to make that back?

Waiting for full retirement would net me approximately another $500 a month.

But look at the money I left on the table just waiting 2 years.

that equals 100 months worth of that $500 bucks left behind. That is 8 years just to make back what I left waiting only 2 years to age 64 1/2!

I will estimate my life span at about 78 years at best. So I'm not waiting long.


Now you have to look at expenses and what you have in retirement savings and WHERE you have that money invested.

Remember you will have to take a required minimum distribution from your 401k in your 70 +1/2
This is not required of a ROTH, SO in tax beneficial years you can roll SOME money form a 401K to a ROTH.

You could end up cash flush and on the hook for capital gains taxes.

I just found out my "tax free" state taxes dividend and interest income from brokerage accounts at 5%

I have some money THERE too. SO I have to change and modify my stratagem.

GO to the government SSA site and look at their estimates for you income and do a couple quick calculations.

You have to go paperless anyhow so you have to set up a password and security questions.

You may want to wait a couple years to make some extra cash if you have some savings to live on.


https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SiView.action
 
Last edited:
Bob
[/quote]

Interesting calculation about the crossover point.

One more thing to keep in mind... Studies have shown that working longer shortens life expectancy. So chances of living past 77 years are higher if you stop working early, rather than later.

So best case scenario for the OP would be to save up some money, stop working at age 62 and live off of savings until age 66.[/quote]


Take retirement at 62. You go to the bank almost 48 times before you will be 66.
 
If your wife/significant other's earnings fall well short of your own, they might fare better collecting at 50% of your rate. And they can start collecting the FULL amount at age 65.

One can easily check the tables and see what the % drop is if you collect 1 yr or more early. Last I checked it was around 4-5% less if you went one year early.

And of course, no one knows how long SS will remain in its current state. It could be revamped down the road, reduced, and have the age to collect pushed out even further. That's up to Congress and the ever-changing electorate.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top