Social Security - 62, 66 or 70?

[Travelover]

There are a number of retirement planners on line. Two good ones are FireCalc and the Fidelity retirement income planner. You input your particulars and the planner tells you basically how much you can spend taking into account historic investment returns and historic inflation levels. If you have done your homework, you already know your expenses, at least in the near term. I like the Fidelity planner as it outputs a spread sheet with a line for every year of the rest of your life with income, taxes, minimum required distributions and remaining portfolio. You can input the start and stop of types of income and expenses, like starting a pension or paying off a mortgage. I agree with spending more while you are "young", as long as it doesn't short you when you are too old to recover a shortfall. This program helped me to visualize it and gave me more confidence in setting a spending limit.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Geez... I am in the minority here. I'm 56 with no plans to retire at all. I love my job, get to travel all I want, play around on my 80 acres, and enjoy life more than ever. Don't really understand the fascination of retirement, either. Different strokes for different folks...

 

[Travelover]

Geez... I am in the minority here. I'm 56 with no plans to retire at all. I love my job, get to travel all I want, play around on my 80 acres, and enjoy life more than ever. Don't really understand the fascination of retirement, either. Different strokes for different folks...

The goal, at least for me, was to be in a position to retire if I wanted to. I call that financial independence. If you love working, by all means do so. But if your employment situation changes - company sold, real SOB of a new boss, personal health issues - it is pretty nice to say adios. For me, it turns out that a whole world was out there beyond my cube that was / is mine to enjoy all day everyday. The important thing is to be able to do what makes you happy.

 

[RSKY]

The Fidelity Income Planner is what convinced me to retire.

 

[jeff9366]

I am leaning towards taking the SS and putting it into a Roth IRA and taking enough out of my 401/457 to pay The insurance premiums as I believe they are tax deductible.

In retirement you cannot contribute to either type of IRA with SS nor pension income. IRA contributions can only be made in years in which you receive a form 1040 from your employer.

Medical insurance and medical expenses may be deductible but the bar is high. You have to have a lot of medical expenses, relative to income, before they become deductible. For reasonably healthy couples medical expenses, including insurance, will not be be deductible.

At age 68 I am healthy and active. However, my medical expenses are significant as age-related problems crop up regularly, which require medical attention and medications. In the last five years our medical expenses have only been deductible once; when my wife and I both had minor surgery in the same year, got new specs and had some elective dental work done. These medical expenses were planned for one tax year.

Stocks are treacherous investments for retirees. Twice in my working lifetime stocks have had ten year periods with no gain. After inflation the stock returns have been slightly negative.

While we are in a period of low inflation (2014 = 1.6%) but you cannot assume low inflation will continue. The inflation adjustment (COLA) on SS may be vitally important in a few years.

I can clearly remember stagflation misery under Carter. Stagnant economy with inflation.

 

[fishheadbob]

I worked for Social Security for 29 years and am certain that I know more about this subject than any contributor. Maybe my first day on the job an older employee told me never directly answer the question whether a person should take early retirement or wait until full retirement age. Still good advice.
This thread contains some good food for thought, but also some serious mistakes, some half truths, and some out of context statements that can seriously affect people. Person A may have a set of circumstances that superficially sound a lot like what person B has; but application of the law and regulations may result in some very different results. A few of the above pronouncements of "fact" had me snorting with laughter.
You wouldn't take retirement advice from a guy at the corner bar, don't take it from an anonymous poster on the internet. (Jeez, did I even have to say that ?)
Research your own situation, read the Social Security website thoroughly, maybe even schedule an appointment (A.K.A. waste half a day) with Social Security a year or 5 before you consider retiring to run it past people who might have an idea what they're talking about. Be very wary of experts, Social Security can be as complex as you make it, or it can be straightforward and easy.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I am 55 years old and will be facing this same decision as everyone else in a few years...
I am fortunate that at 62 I will have 27 plus years into the state retirement system...
So my options are good...
However, I have a job that I love and the pay and benefits are good...
Not physically demanding either...
So I probably will tell wifey who is the same age to hang it up and let her draw at 62 and I will keep on working until 65 or 66 and 10 months...my full retirement age...
But situations do change according to health and I am fully aware of that also...
One comment on life insurance...
At work we were offered a term life option that I could not pass up...
1 time offer, portable, rate fixed until you die, no pre-existing conditions...
200K for me and 100K for her...
$45 a month...
The payout goes to 1/2 that amount at the age of 70 but the rate stays the same...
We already have enough life insurance but I could not pass it up...
Had a minor surgery this summer but had to be put to sleep...
Told wifey is something happened to cash the check...

 

[Travelover]

.......... This thread contains some good food for thought, but also some serious mistakes, some half truths, and some out of context statements that can seriously affect people. Person A may have a set of circumstances that superficially sound a lot like what person B has; but application of the law and regulations may result in some very different results. A few of the above pronouncements of "fact" had me snorting with laughter.

You'd do more good if you addressed the inaccurate statement directly, than launching a vague barrage against us dummies here, that didn't spend a lifetime as a government worker.

You wouldn't take retirement advice from a guy at the corner bar, don't take it from an anonymous poster on the internet. (Jeez, did I even have to say that ?)

Right, everyone knows the credibility of fishheadbob.

 

[fishheadbob]

Quoting you:
You'd do more good if you addressed the inaccurate statement directly, than launching a vague barrage against us dummies here, that didn't spend a lifetime as a government worker.

How about I start with this one.

I want to make sure my wife is covered after I die, so she will take it at 62, I will take spousal (half her amount) at 66, then take my full at 70. When I die, she gets my amount.

Last time I looked the law was pretty specific that you can't do this in a life case. Only widowed people can do this.

I really don't want to get into a P*****g contest with anyone; I'd bet that you are pretty good at what you do. I'm pretty good at what I do.

I wouldn't attempt to cover many aspects of Social Security on an internet forum, it's way to complex and subject, as I said, to way too many incorrect conclusions.

 

[JDgreen227]

So many variables to consider....but for me I took the reduced benefit at age 62 because I calculated had I waited four years to get my full benefit, it wouild take me until age 77 to get back what I would get if I didn't wait. And to me it's better to get the payout early because you have no idea what SS is going to be like down the road.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a certified financial advisor, so any risk you take following my advice is just that....YOUR RISK. :laughing: :laughing: