You can lose a lot if you mistime your Social Security Benefits
If you start taking payments from your Social Security account before reaching your retirement age, that money doesn’t get replaced. The truth is that you are actively taking away from the amount you will be paid monthly, and there is no way to get it back. Once you start taking early payments, you’re decreasing your future monthly payments.
A good tip from people who have been through all of this already is to try to wait for as much as possible until you start to take out Social Security payments. You will be getting more money with each check then, as opposed to decreasing the amount. However, there are a lot of things that can be factored in, so it would be a great idea to talk to an expert or use an online optimizer to see when the best time is to take out payments.
3 Responses
A lot of truths were spot on. Disappointed to see that there was no mention of Medicare Advantage Plans available from numerous major insurance companies that will pay a lot more than straight Original Medicare. Copay’s are modest and mostly all costs are fully paid when you hit the maximum out of pocket level. There is also the Gap coverage option. This is important info that should have been included.
My spouse and I waited until age 70 to start collecting social security which has made a big difference for our long term plans. The 8% increase per year for the four years after our age 66 regular retirement age gives us 32% more.
We have a moderate LTC plan which has a reasonable rate which will help IF we need it later in life.
This article does not address the federal taxes you will have to pay on those benefits based on ridiculous levels of income that have not been adjusted for years.