Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Social Security question

if you still enjoy working that much, you can just get your hours trimmed back or pick up a different part time job. Or perform your old just on a consulting basis.

Just have to keep it under a limit.

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If you start taking benefits early and keep working, you may run into the Social Security income limits. As of 2019, the government will deduct $1 of every $2 you earn over $17,640 from your next year's benefit level if you are under full retirement age. The figure changes a bit from year to year.

Regarding when to take SS, one's situation can and likely will be different and there is no best answer for everyone. Regardless if you take it at 62 or at your full retirement age, by the time you reach about 80 you will have received the same overall amount. After the age of 79 (normal life expectancy), those who have held off taking SS will end up receiving significantly more.

Our advisor told us to take it when we need it and if we don't need it - hold off. One's overall health and family history comes into play too. My wife's parents died at 98 and 90 and my dad lived to 92 and my mother is still alive at 88. Neither my wife or I take any medications at 64. I retired at 55 and my wife at 56 and we are having a comfortable but not extravagant retirement. We had 2 parents in assisted living and one in a nursing home and so we know how quickly one can go thru one's life savings paying $4-6 thousand per month. And while nobody thinks they'll end up there, those places are full and in some places there's a waiting list to get in, so many in fact do. The higher our monthly income is at that very expensive time of life, the better off we will be and the less of a burden we will become to our child. You don't want to end up in a medicaid nursing facility, with bed sores and poor care. The more $ you have at the end, the better you'll be treated.

The trade-off for drawing SS retirement benefit early is of course a relatively substantial reduced benefit.

The annual SS C.O.L.A , if any, isn't much and hasn't been for a good while. and likely won't be much for the foreseeable future but the real life costs of the usual household expenditures can and typically will continue to increase.

After a few years of ever increasing cost of utility bills, groceries, insurances, home/auto maintenance and replacement, property taxes, etc., etc., opting for the lower early retirement SS benefit may not be a wise decision for some.

What's the Maximum Social Security at Age 62, 65, or 70?

Rocky up above has it correct. I penciled it out and starting early makes the most sense. If you are gonna continue working then it might be different for tax purposes.. ed k

Ok, so here's my questions: your spouse gets your SS. If you claim at 62 is that what she gets or does she get any other number? If I die without ever claiming, what amount is she able to get?

SS gets a COL raise this month ..3% I believe

I took mine at 62 also.......why wait ?

CK shows up 3rd Wednesday every month.....

I still have taxes to pay in every April

Believe it or not that question is answered here. https://www.ssa.gov/

Your full spouse’s benefit could be up to 50 percent of your spouse’s full retirement age amount if you are full retirement age when you take it. If you qualify for your own retirement benefit and a spouse’s benefit, we always pay your own benefit first. You cannot receive spouse’s benefits unless your spouse is receiving his or her retirement benefits (except for divorced spouses). If you took your reduced retirement first while waiting for your spouse to reach retirement age, when you add spouse’s benefits later, your own retirement portion remains reduced which causes the total retirement and spouses benefit together to total less than 50 percent of the worker’s amount. You can find out more on our website.

If the deceased worker started receiving reduced retirement benefits before their full retirement age, a special rule called the retirement insurance benefit limit may apply to the surviving spouse. The retirement insurance benefit limit is the maximum survivor benefit you may receive. Generally, the limit is the higher of:

The reduced monthly retirement benefit to which the deceased spouse would have been entitled if they had lived, or
82.5 percent of the unreduced deceased spouse’s monthly benefit if they had started receiving benefits at their full retirement age (rather than choosing to receive a reduced retirement benefit early).

You can end up getting more overall by starting sooner.
The differences will be minimal.
My wife's Dad tried your strategy and died a few months before he hit the right age.

Ask the people at SS and they can tell you real numbers.

No one knows what their future will be - how long they will live. The question is: Did your father in law have a nice life and was he financially secure when he died? If he could afford to hold off, he probably was. It's not who gets the most SS benefit that wins. My wife and I are holding off for full retirement age or even longer, if we don't need it at 66. If I never collect a dime from SS yet am living a comfortable and happy life up until then and could meet my expenses- I win! If I collect SS benefits at 62 and yet at 90 I end up in a medicaid facility with my expenses exceeding my income - I lose. It's about your quality of life for however long your life lasts.

1st thing is not everybody is the same. If you are single and not independently wealthy, 65 is the minimum so you've got Medicare. At my age 66 years and 2 months for "full retirement age" so if I went a 65 my SS is discounted about $150 a month over full retirement age. If I wait until 66 and 2 I have waived the 14 months of discounted plus 14 months of my state retirement. The total of what I could get at 65 and that of 66 and 2 is about $150 a month you divide that into what I'd waive if I waited till 66 and 2 and it will take to 80 years old to hit the break even point, I am going this spring while I still have my health. MB

I waited until 66. Time will tell if smart or not.

You can un-retire too. I talked with a lady who un-retired three times and when you aren't drawing your SS, it can be building up. I lost my first wife to lung cancer when she was only 54, but because we had been married for more than ten years and I was old enough to collect SS, I could get her SS amount and let my own continue to build up. I was in good health and the fact that I loathed my national sales manager, I pulled the plug early. Sure SS builds up a little each month the longer that you don't take it, but are you going to be better off physically at age 70 with a larger check than you were 8 years earlier at age 62 when you could be more physically active and better able to go places and do things?

Hanco, as a trades guy with the skills that you have, you can work side jobs as much or as little as you want to. We had to sign a non-compete paper in our industry, but if that doesn't apply to you, have at it.

Retirement and SS are different objects. You can retire and wait for SS. Early SS funds are reduced and taxed. Consider funding the daily retirement with savings until the 66+2. Cash flow will be better an you get the SS COLA on a larger number. Once SS starts you will be in good condition for start of RDM at 70. A (Pension+SS+ RDM) is a plan for success. My only suggestion is start the whole journey with a new truck and RV and go out and enjoy your self.

Quit your job and go $100k into debt

I started taking it at 65 not 66, When I penciled it out.I was break even at 80. If I live that long. After that I will be losing like $30 a month.
Wife waited until 66 but she's got a longer life expectancy than I.
At 65 you will be dinged for Taxes and Medicare.

2020 SS COLA is just a little over half that at 1.6%

https://www.ssa.gov/cola/

Yep, and part B went up 1% if I remember right. Part D went up a couple bucks too. So basically the COLA only barely pays for the cost increases.

What we've found so far was the best source for reliable answers and understandable explanations on questions about SS is to schedule an appointment at our local SS office to sit down face to face and talk with a representative directly.

As always, YMMV...

Kinda like when I was working . . . we would routinely get a raise almost exactly what the inflation rate plus the increase in health insurance was. No coincidence.