S.S. at age 62 (payments, husband, benefits, wife)

[maggiekate]

Has anyone who has, or will turn this Magic age, said no, or will?

I did, why 25% seems alot to say why? Also, if the stocks go up, low income, you cash some profit out? ideas!

[Huckleberry3911948]

door 1 take the money.
they could fold. apply b4.

[texdav]

Huh?Say what?

[mrschilicook]

Huh? Am I going deaf too? What did you ask again?

[nancy thereader]

Heh. heh. You guys are cool.

[Tressa]

I'm sorry but WHAT?

[gemkeeper]

Can you elaborate on your question a bit, maggiekate?

I must be drinking, although I thought it was just green tea, but I missed about 25 necessary words here!

[Bideshi]

You will lose aprox 25% of full SS benefit if you start drawing at 62. Whether it's a good idea to do so or not is probably impossible to answer without being able to see the future. For me, I will try to wait until full retirement age because I have a good paying job right now with good health benefits and a non-working wife with no SS credits. I want to max out the SS for her survivor benefit (I'm a lot older than she is and will probably precede her). If you are financially comfortable and don't need to work it's a different situation. If you have no other reportable earned income you will not be penalized for drawing SS at 62 other than the 25% reduced ammount.

[gemkeeper]

Thanks, Bideshi. My husband decided to take retirement at 63 because he was exhausted from upper level corporate life. Now, due to health reasons, he feels he made the right decision. He will start to draw in May this year.

The reduction for him is less than 25% (I am thinking the 20% range), but still reduced payments. I have been reluctant to do this still having a mortgage, trying to sell at the worse time possible, and not knowing, like you mentioned, just how long one has to live. Will we collect long enough that the reduced payments make up for what we are forfeiting by retiring early?

It is a quandry that I wish we didn't have to deal with, but that must puzzle many.

[eureka1]

It's my understanding that even with the lower benefit at 62 you can earn up to $13K+ before there are any reductions. Please correct me if I'm wrong!