Social Security Planning
"A WISE STRATEGY FOR CLAIMING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS MAY RESULT
IN ADDITIONAL RETIREMENT INCOME"
Social Security retirement benefits help provide lifetime inflation-adjusted income. Combined with your retirement savings, plus any pension benefits you may receive, Social Security may serve as an important component of our overall plan for retirement income.
DON'T AUTOMATICALLY THINK THAT CLAIMING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS EARLY IS YOUR BEST DECISION
It may have been the right choice for your parents, but it could be he wrong choice for you.
In fact, if you feel that you are likely to live to age 80, or, 85, you should think carefully about delaying benefits until even after your full retirement age. This is because for every year that you wait beyond full retirement age, your monthly check will be increased by an additional 8%.
Waiting until age 70 means receiving 32% more retirement income versus age 66, and 75% more income compared to age 62. That's $1,800 per month at age 63, versus $3,168 at age 70.
Eligibility for Social Security begins "early", at age 62. However claiming early will reduce your monthly check - permanently. There are many issues to consider when deciding to claim benefits.
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT HOW LONG YOU MAY LIVE IN RETIREMENT?
Have you ever thought how many years you might spend in retirement? While we can't know for certain, we should think about how life expectancy has increased in the decades since Social Security began. In 1935, life expectancy in the U.S. was 61.7 years. By 2010 it had increased to 78.7 years. Consider a married couple age 65. There's a 50% chance that one spouse will live to age 92. And a one-in-four chance that one spouse will live to age 97.
As of December 2010, 5.8 million Social Security beneficiaries were at least age 85. Some much older. But collecting Social Security benefits well into old age is nothing new.