Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don’t know how they figured it, but I wouldn’t ask how either!! I just did the same calculation for me (for 2019 and previous 35 years, all maxed out) and made one of my years a zero, and it only made a $47/mo difference, so don’t look a gift horse in the mouth! Raises wouldn’t make a difference if you were already going to be past the $168k/yr or so upper limit I believe it is at now. Inassume with. $4k/mo SS you were near the max for 35 years, depending at what age you filed.
Sweet!! Thats about max as far as I can tell. Almost $57k/yr for yours alone. Who could imagine SS that high. The reward for waiting. Now you just have to live long enough to reap it fully, LOL.
Current MAX is around $4,850. Early retirement at 62 stole the last high income years from me otherwise I would have been there. Time will tell if my delay will “pay off”. My kid brother took at 62 we have a $100 bet on who was right.
My monthly check will be $4,739. Once I start the Mrs should move up to half my FRA payout. Looking at $6,700 per month from Uncle Sam.
It makes a difference to wait and if you are like I was, where I didn't save the money I should have, it can make a huge difference.
I receive $3,444 while my wife receives $937 for a total of $4,391 in just social security alone. Since we have zero debt and no mortgage we could live comfortably enough on social security alone if we had to.
The reason my wife's SS is so low is she has a small state pension of $498 for which she gets WEP'd on her social security.
I made the mistake of having a weak moment when I turned 69 and applied. I shouldn't have but at least I didn't apply at 66.
The best part is if something happens to me first my wife will receive my social security which, with her WEP and pension, should end up being a total of $3,700 a month for a single widow.
So, if you were like me and didn't save you can make up a lot just by holding off a couple extra years.
Was it a weak moment? You will have an extra $41,000 you wouldn’t have, had you waited until 70. Waiting another year would have gotten you around $200/mo more. It would take you 15-17 years to save that much from the difference, and that extra amount already in savings could be needed for something important before that.
No offense, but I took mine at 66+1, and while I can’t deny it would be nice to see an extra $1000/mo in my check, waiting until 70, (which was my original plan) once we got the COLAs totaling about 18% these past 3 years, (and looking at another 3% next year,) I noticed my age 66 SS was about the same as my predicted age 70 amount was in 2017, when that amount seemed like the right decision. It was sure larger than I ever thought it was going to be when I was in my 40s, and in my 20s, when I assumed SS wouldn’t even be around by the time I retired.
I (we) decided it made more sense to have the extra $174,000 by age 70 that filing at 66 will pay me, as my larger pension would disappear if I died first, and DW would rather have extra cash invested, to pay off the house with, should I go first. We debated it over a few weeks time. That would eliminate about $2300/mo in costs for her. Currently, our pensions are just over $62k/year, ($10k is hers) and with SS now of about the same, and about $2M in savings, (half in Roth or after tax accounts) it was not about having too small a nest egg, or needing the income.
I had already put aside the necessary cash to delay filing until 70, in a HY savings at 5%, and was drawing from that as needed for lumpy expenses, much less than my current SS check is. (Travel, cars, whatever). Our current steady burn rate, with our only debt the mortgage at 2.75%, including utilities, taxes, fees, food, insurances is about $6000/mo, and we haven’t seen anywhere near the increase in total costs that current inflation numbers would suggest against that steady monthly burn. We simply reinvest what we don’t use. In 6 years when my RMDs are required, our forced income and taxes go up even more.
Everyone has a different scenario that shapes what is the best decision as to when to file. While supposedly no/few people have ever regretted filing at 70, based on all the research I could find, just as no/few regretted filing at 66, or even 62.
I ran in to an old work buddy of mine that is a year older than me, in a Whole Foods near our house, that I have known well since we were about 30, that had decided to not take the ERP I took at age 61 in 2019, which was probably the last time I had seen him, and was surprised to hear is still working there at age 67. For over 45 years. We had talked about why he wasn’t taking the package, back then, and he said that he had crunched the numbers, and he just couldn’t see leaving when he was making more than he ever had, and while his wife, 3 years younger, was still working. Plus, he believed that (like many do, not me though) that if you retired early, you died early. I know for a fact he sure didn’t & doesn’t need the money, as his wife also had a very well paying job and their mortgage has been paid off for at least 20 years, & his kids are doing well on their own. They are absolutely not wasteful or spendthrifts, & she was a bank VP. She retired 4 years ago. He looked awful, gained about 30lbs since I last saw him and was at least 100lbs overweight. He mentioned he was probably going to retire at the end of this year, now that he had filed for his SS at his FRA, and his pension would be about $85k. He said he decided he needed to address his health and that the extra money just didn’t seem like a good reason to stay any longer. We didn’t discuss if he regretted not taking the package. I know that at the occasional retiree breakfast I go to, no one there regrets it at all! We each follow our own path and hope it is a good one.
Last edited by Perryinva; 04-13-2024 at 12:04 AM..
Was it a weak moment? You will have an extra $41,000 you wouldn’t have, had you waited until 70. Waiting another year would have gotten you around $200/mo more. It would take you 15-17 years to save that much from the difference, and that extra amount already in savings could be needed for something important before that.
No offense, but I took mine at 66+1, and while I can’t deny it would be nice to see an extra $1000/mo in my check, waiting until 70, (which was my original plan) once we got the COLAs totaling about 18% these past 3 years, (and looking at another 3% next year,) I noticed my age 66 SS was about the same as my predicted age 70 amount was in 2017, when that amount seemed like the right decision. It was sure larger than I ever thought it was going to be when I was in my 40s, and in my 20s, when I assumed SS wouldn’t even be around by the time I retired.
I (we) decided it made more sense to have the extra $174,000 by age 70 that filing at 66 will pay me, as my larger pension would disappear if I died first, and DW would rather have extra cash invested, to pay off the house with, should I go first. We debated it over a few weeks time. That would eliminate about $2300/mo in costs for her. Currently, our pensions are just over $62k/year, ($10k is hers) and with SS now of about the same, and about $2M in savings, (half in Roth or after tax accounts) it was not about having too small a nest egg, or needing the income.
I had already put aside the necessary cash to delay filing until 70, in a HY savings at 5%, and was drawing from that as needed for lumpy expenses, much less than my current SS check is. (Travel, cars, whatever). Our current steady burn rate, with our only debt the mortgage at 2.75%, including utilities, taxes, fees, food, insurances is about $6000/mo, and we haven’t seen anywhere near the increase in total costs that current inflation numbers would suggest against that steady monthly burn. We simply reinvest what we don’t use. In 6 years when my RMDs are required, our forced income and taxes go up even more.
Everyone has a different scenario that shapes what is the best decision as to when to file. While supposedly no/few people have ever regretted filing at 70, based on all the research I could find, just as no/few regretted filing at 66, or even 62.
I ran in to an old work buddy of mine that is a year older than me, in a Whole Foods near our house, that I have known well since we were about 30, that had decided to not take the ERP I took at age 61 in 2019, which was probably the last time I had seen him, and was surprised to hear is still working there at age 67. For over 45 years. We had talked about why he wasn’t taking the package, back then, and he said that he had crunched the numbers, and he just couldn’t see leaving when he was making more than he ever had, and while his wife, 3 years younger, was still working. Plus, he believed that (like many do, not me though) that if you retired early, you died early. I know for a fact he sure didn’t & doesn’t need the money, as his wife also had a very well paying job and their mortgage has been paid off for at least 20 years, & his kids are doing well on their own. They are absolutely not wasteful or spendthrifts, & she was a bank VP. She retired 4 years ago. He looked awful, gained about 30lbs since I last saw him and was at least 100lbs overweight. He mentioned he was probably going to retire at the end of this year, now that he had filed for his SS at his FRA, and his pension would be about $85k. He said he decided he needed to address his health and that the extra money just didn’t seem like a good reason to stay any longer. We didn’t discuss if he regretted not taking the package. I know that at the occasional retiree breakfast I go to, no one there regrets it at all! We each follow our own path and hope it is a good one.
my old posts here always had me saying i would wait until 70 , like you .
but once we were actually fronting 50k in ss to ourselves from invested assets it was silly . took it at 65 which was the earliest i could because i worked one day a week .
I just started my SS benefits in February at age 69 + 1 month. The first direct deposit hit my account on March 10, about $4530 (before medicare deduction). That adds up to about $54K per year. I was one of those who also planned to wait until age 70, as I have a good monthly corporate pension that's enough to pay most monthly expenses. However, after the large SS COLAs in the past few years, it was too much money to leave on the table to delay my SS start date any longer. There was almost no scenario where it would ever have been to my advantage to wait an extra year to age 70.
for as long as spousal existed the higher earner had to file .
so that isn’t a new law .
what is more recent since 2015 is that the ability of the higher earner to start , get spousal for the lower earner and then suspend their own to grow has gone away.
that was called fie and suspend
Wow it was that long ago. Doesn't seem like it. That worked out great for us and glad it did! Had to remember how old we are.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
