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Those of you who retired pre Social Security full retirement age -- and DELAYED claiming -- Soc sec. can you tell us your story, or give advice?
-- How long was it before you applied for Soc Sec?
-- Did you live off savings, a pension and/or retirement accounts in the mean time?
-- Did you live of one of those -- AND work part-time?
-- Do you have any advice, or caveats about doing this?
-- Did you find any hiccups in the Soc. Sec claims process?
-- How much did NOT working right up until you claimed hurt your benefit amount?
It's years away, but as of now I'm planning to retire at 65, and not claim Soc. Sec. to (at least) 67, my FRA.
-- I haven't yet applied for SS. There may come a point where it will be worth it for me to file (but not yet collect) so DH can claim some spousal benefits before applying for his own (I'm the high-earner with regard to SS).
-- We're living off savings, and just enough coming from retirement investments to keep me off Medi-Cal (if you apply via Obamacare with a low enough income you're automatically shunted off to Medi-Cal).
-- DH got tired of waiting for me to retire, and he's now working less than half-time at minimum wage just to have something to do and also because it's excellent exercise.
-- Caveat: Be sure you have enough liquid assets not to have to worry about running out and having to claim SS earlier than you'd planned.
-- Not working the final few years before FRA won't hurt my benefit amount at all (unless they change the process) because I have enough quarters at high salary to collect maximum benefit.
I am not there yet, but not all that far away. Here is one possible plan of action - at age 62, while working, downsize into new home eliminating or greatly reducing mortgage and possibly replace a car. My birthday is late December (lines up with tax years). At age 63, retire and start taking small draws from tax deferred retirement account(s). Income should be low enough to make effective tax rate around 5% and qualify for reduced ACA coverage until I turn 65.
I am not sure I will do that, but if things stay like they are now it is a possibility. I can't answer your questions, but it seemed like something you might want to think about.
Those of you who retired pre Social Security full retirement age -- and DELAYED claiming -- Soc sec. can you tell us your story, or give advice?
-- How long was it before you applied for Soc Sec?
-- Did you live off savings, a pension and/or retirement accounts in the mean time?
-- Did you live of one of those -- AND work part-time?
-- Do you have any advice, or caveats about doing this?
-- Did you find any hiccups in the Soc. Sec claims process?
-- How much did NOT working right up until you claimed hurt your benefit amount?
It's years away, but as of now I'm planning to retire at 65, and not claim Soc. Sec. to (at least) 67, my FRA.
retired at 62 in july . will plan ss around what the markets do since we are pretty much living off of our portfolio .
have 2 years in withdrawals in cash so i don't have to worry about markets for now .
but if markets are down rather than spend invested assets i will file for ss .
if one will not be working from 62 on and delaying ss and living off your own savings then the equation shifts a lot .
if you will be spending down invested assets those assets are done compounding forever .
also , like in our case my wife gets a spousal adder to hers since she is collecting early but until i file she gets no additional kicker of 2500.00 a year . .
then of course we have the checks you didn't collect .
ONE OTHER THING IS UNTIL YOU COLLECT THE HOLD HARMLESS MEDICARE LAW DOES NOT PROTECT YOU .
for 2016 there is a huge jump in medicare of more than 50 bucks a month coming .
if you are collecting you can not be raised more than the cola adjustment . since there is none there will be no increase if collecting .
if not collecting you get the full increase .
based on a balanced fund and all of the above , break even is not until 22-23 years out ,. that is a far cry from just figuring lost checks . that is a very long time just to reach ground zero .
you need to live to 90 or a spouse does to make it worth delaying and getting a big enough difference so taking the risk of not reaching break even is worth it as you are betting against the house when you bet on longevity to that age ,.
there still are reasons for weighting like survivor benefits and reduced dependency on markets down the road , but the point is it is more than looking at 8 years of checks difference .
Maybe it's my political bias -- (that's all I'll say about that) -- and my ignorance -- but I have not plans to go anywhere near using a government exchange to get health insurance.
The plan -- years out yet -- is to retire at 65 -- work just long enough to get to Medicare. But my FRA is 67.
So I'd LIKE to retire at 65, get Medicare, and not file for Soc Sec. until 67 (or later).
I'd live of a pension alone, OR maybe IF I need to -- tap my 401K. (Or hell even work part time, as an absolute last resort)
I have a friend who retired 1 1/2 years ago at just before age 60, and her COBRA just ran out. So she just went on a health exchange site, found a policy (no dental or vision)...so I'll have her experiences to gauge whether that works out for her over the next few years. Which will give me enough time to decide whether to retire before Medicare age.
And I can't recall the DEFINITIVE answer as to whether COBRA is 'qualifying' coverage before Medicare. Health insurance, including vision and dental, is my main retirement concern. But even age 62 is 7 years away for me and who knows what the country's health insurance picture will be by then.....
I'm just educating myself, becoming familiar with policies, terminology, programs, practices, agencies, STRATEGIES, etc.
So hearing how others have lived financially, and what they've done and learned -- money-wise -- between retirement and claiming Soc. Sec. is very much of interest. Hope to hear more!
Maybe it's my political bias -- (that's all I'll say about that) -- and my ignorance -- but I have not plans to go anywhere near using a government exchange to get health insurance.
I have a friend who retired 1 1/2 years ago at just before age 60, and her COBRA just ran out.
I'm just educating myself, becoming familiar with policies, terminology, programs, practices, agencies, STRATEGIES, etc.
So hearing how others have lived financially, and what they've done and learned -- money-wise -- between retirement and claiming Soc. Sec. is very much of interest. Hope to hear more!
Bias or ignorance is no way to make informed choices, you should weigh all options unless your philosophy is so overriding that principles trump practicality, that is, for most of us retirement is about diminishing resources of money, health & time. I say just do what works for you whether red, blue or purple.
For me COBRA was significantly more expensive than ACA when I retired at 63, made no sense at all to consider it until Medicare kicks in. I had also planned to work until 65-66, Plan A, but that didn't make sense when they offered a package when I was bored beyond words at work. I'm not planning to take SS until 66, 2 more years, but I am keeping an eye on the market as well in case I need to jump the gun (Plan B).
It's good to be considering options early like you are & have a Plan A, but definitely be considering a Plan B. The reality isn't too small that you may eventually end up having to chose Plan F, G or M due to unforeseen changes in your life.
retired at 62 in july . will plan ss around what the markets do since we are pretty much living off of our portfolio .
have 2 years in withdrawals in cash so i don't have to worry about markets for now .
but if markets are down rather than spend invested assets i will file for ss .
if one will not be working from 62 on and delaying ss and living off your own savings then the equation shifts a lot .
if you will be spending down invested assets those assets are done compounding forever .
based on a balanced fund and all of the above , break even is not until 22-23 years out ,. that is a far cry from just figuring lost checks . that is a very long time just to reach ground zero .
you need to live to 90 or a spouse does to make it worth delaying and getting a big enough difference so taking the risk of not reaching break even is worth it as you are betting against the house when you bet on longevity to that age ,.
there still are reasons for weighting like survivor benefits and reduced dependency on markets down the road , but the point is it is more than looking at 8 years of checks difference .
Let's say you have a largish amount in tax-deferred retirement/401K accounts. Would you say taking SS early and drawing retirement/401K assets taxed mostly at the 25% tax bracket is still better than deferring SS and drawing down retirement/401K assets mostly at the 15% tax bracket?
Also another low probability consideration is that from a lawsuit perspective the 401K money is judgment proof so it can never be taken from you so from that perspective better to keep as much in the judgmentproof accounts as possible.
Both of us retired at 59 living on pensions and some investments. Had work provided health insurance in retirement. Am now 67 the wife is on SS, I am collecting spousal on her account and will draw on mine at 70. The great thing is that from ages 59-70 we had scheduled fixed income streams kicking in. They will be all kicked in at 70 unless I take SS sooner( not likely) and at 70.5 we start required RMD. Sorta like working and getting a big raise or promotion. Our pensions have spousal benefit and COLA. So it can work out real well.
Those of you who retired pre Social Security full retirement age -- and DELAYED claiming -- Soc sec. can you tell us your story, or give advice?
-- How long was it before you applied for Soc Sec? quit working at 62 started drawing SS at 63.5
-- Did you live off savings, a pension and/or retirement accounts in the mean time? pension and savings
-- Did you live of one of those -- AND work part-time? no
-- Do you have any advice, or caveats about doing this? in the long run the gain would have been better to draw SS at 62 rather than wait until older for minimal increase in payments. SS at FRA to age 70 is where the big return for waiting is, not 62/63/64/65 to FRA
-- Did you find any hiccups in the Soc. Sec claims process? none whatsoever. did it on line, they called me in to confirm my identity and sent out checks in a very timely manner
-- How much did NOT working right up until you claimed hurt your benefit amount? the single best thing is to work until you draw SS at whatever age you chose to do so. hard to answer this question in a way that makes sense without getting too long winded. Bottom line you are not gaining that much by waiting if you are between 62 - FRA to draw. when you quit work, draw
It's years away, but as of now I'm planning to retire at 65, and not claim Soc. Sec. to (at least) 67, my FRA.
one year or two isn't going to help that much either way. It is more time than earnings if you have max SS paid in and 35 years. etc
I am single and started drawing at 63.5, the amount of money I could have accrued starting at 62 would have more than made up for the 75% vs 84% of FRA that I would have gotten. and I would have retained a chunk of savings. no big deal, I am OK dollar wise since I have a pension and SS but I learned a lesson.
If I were married, head of household, concerned about spousal benefits, had no health insurance, etc then the answer might be different.
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-- (that's all I'll say about that
