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- Apr 8, 2013
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normal amount
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90 Working Days LeftTo Retire :)
- Thread starter Janderso
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2016
- Messages
- 7,023
When I was looking at 62 it was 85% of what I would get at 66, and every year I worked past 62 there was a percentage increase. I waited till 66 to retire, 70 was a higher percentage, but my mental health was not going to make it that far. At 62, and if you might still have work with a taxable income there is a set limit before you have to pay SS back a dollar for every 2 you make over the limit.(13,000.00 annual?)
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,737
I believe that if anyone is planning to retire mainly on SS income, you are not going to enjoy it. Some significant source of other income is necessary…better get some rental property or such.
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2019
- Messages
- 745
Sorry I didn’t mention , I signed up online, followed there directions, got an email back that they were processing it and would notify me if they needed any more information. Within a week or two got a email everything was ok and my first check comes in September!
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 4,817
If you look at the rate the SS increases each year, it continues at 7% per year until you are 70. The other factor is that the point that you reach your full retirement benefit use to be 65, but that was changed and is according to your birth year. Mine is 66 years and 2 months, and I just started SS, I did not need the income in previous years because I continued to do medical consulting and was able to keep our head above water through the years. You can easily sign up on-line or schedule and appointment if you want to do it live. I signed up last month and did it on-line, I did Medicare the previous year.
The biggest issue with retiring before you are 65 is medical insurance and the high deductibles, my medical insurance premium before I turned 65 was $1300+ a month (Platinum plan and you still had a 6K deductible). So the insurance costs is killer until you hit 65, and then I recommend standard Medicare plus a supplemental. Medicare Advantage should be called Medicare disadvantage, your monthly cost may be less but Medicare sells you to other insurance carriers and they decide what they are going to pay for and what they are not (it has nothing to do with what Medicare covers), same for drugs. We had friends who signed up for it, he had to have a cardiac ablative therapy for and arrhythmia and his plan did not cover it. In addition they do not cover you out of state/traveling. To screw you even further, if you decide to leave Medicare Advantage to go to regular Medicare, any supplemental insurer can refuse to take you or deny any per-existing medical conditions. So be forewarned, DO NOT TAKE MEDICARE ADVANTAGE, to save a few bucks, I guarantee you will regret it if you need medical care.
As far as SS and when to take it, well you can run the calculations as to taking it earlier and the break even point, if I recall it is something like 10-12 years you would make up the difference. Remember that SS was never meant to be a full retirement income, and should only represent something like 40-60% of your retirement income if possible. The problem these days is pensions are becoming a thing of the past, 401/403/IRA's make diddly squat and the stock market is a total crap shoot and can you weather a drop of 20-30% or more loss of your savings when the market takes a crap. Ideally one has several sources of income and can get through some rough spots if one pot is not making a profit. Heck you can have a pot full of money in the bank and get 0.04% interest from the bank, maybe 0.4% in a high yield account that then turn around and they offer you a credit card at 28% interest. Yep, there is something wrong in our systems.
The biggest issue with retiring before you are 65 is medical insurance and the high deductibles, my medical insurance premium before I turned 65 was $1300+ a month (Platinum plan and you still had a 6K deductible). So the insurance costs is killer until you hit 65, and then I recommend standard Medicare plus a supplemental. Medicare Advantage should be called Medicare disadvantage, your monthly cost may be less but Medicare sells you to other insurance carriers and they decide what they are going to pay for and what they are not (it has nothing to do with what Medicare covers), same for drugs. We had friends who signed up for it, he had to have a cardiac ablative therapy for and arrhythmia and his plan did not cover it. In addition they do not cover you out of state/traveling. To screw you even further, if you decide to leave Medicare Advantage to go to regular Medicare, any supplemental insurer can refuse to take you or deny any per-existing medical conditions. So be forewarned, DO NOT TAKE MEDICARE ADVANTAGE, to save a few bucks, I guarantee you will regret it if you need medical care.
As far as SS and when to take it, well you can run the calculations as to taking it earlier and the break even point, if I recall it is something like 10-12 years you would make up the difference. Remember that SS was never meant to be a full retirement income, and should only represent something like 40-60% of your retirement income if possible. The problem these days is pensions are becoming a thing of the past, 401/403/IRA's make diddly squat and the stock market is a total crap shoot and can you weather a drop of 20-30% or more loss of your savings when the market takes a crap. Ideally one has several sources of income and can get through some rough spots if one pot is not making a profit. Heck you can have a pot full of money in the bank and get 0.04% interest from the bank, maybe 0.4% in a high yield account that then turn around and they offer you a credit card at 28% interest. Yep, there is something wrong in our systems.
Too many wait for that "full pension" and end up dead or sick a couple years later. You can't trade years of freedom for any amount of money. I left work in my 40's and live just fine on partial CPP and OAS and a modest portfolio. Living in Canada with free medical made the decision easy.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2021
- Messages
- 42
I got out too early for health and sanity reasons and needed income from what had been do nothing savings to keep from drawing down, so we put a lot of our savings into a technology etf containing 100 or so big tech companies and have been getting 18-20% avg. annual return. It is not for everybody for sure but it has been beyond great for me. Sitting tight thru the covid slump out was really tough but as it came back we actually added more funds on the up swing after the bottom while it was still low and it returned fast as any long term investor would tell you it would emphasis on "long term". Only wish looking back We would have done more sooner along the lines of investing. We almost went the annuities route and glad we did not thus far for sure. Will soon have enough to consider their security as a plus and might diversify some that way.
- Joined
- May 10, 2012
- Messages
- 995
The amount of social security you get at a given age is calculated based on an being a certain total amount at a death age based on some average no matter when you start. If you live longer than that, you would have been better off taking it later, if not then earlier. I'm going to take mine at 62 if I make it since most of my family have not. If all your parents, grandparents, older siblings, cousins, etc live to be in their 80s and you are healthy, it might be a good gamble to take it later if you can. I think I'll be ok either way, as I have other income sources, but I know it's something people agonize about. My dad was looking forward to taking it at 62, but he didn't make it.