I want to reveal a way to get 30-50 percent more Social Security money from the government? It’s real. And it’s legal!
[MUSIC: Fade music]
All you have to do is delay when you start taking Social Security. That’s it. We told my mother-in-law this when she retired, but she didn’t listen. Will you? Here’s how it works. We’re allowed to start taking Social Security as early as age 62. But if you take the benefit that early you get a seriously reduced benefit. That’s where that 30 percent figure comes from. You get 30 percent less.
By contrast, if you wait until full retirement age, or beyond, you get way more money. To truly understand the power of waiting, let me run a sample scenario for you. Let’s say your birth year was 1965 and your annual income was $40,000. Here’s what you would receive in Social Security, if you retired at different ages:
•If this person retired at Age 62 they would get a $1,607 monthly benefit.
•If they waited until the full retirement age of 67, they would get a $2,729 monthly benefit. A lot more.
•And if they waited just 3 more years to Age 70, their monthly benefit would go up to $3,780.
Those numbers came from the government’s own calculator and they are jaw-dropping differences. In this scenario, waiting until the full retirement age of 67 gets you an additional $1,122 a month. And holding off just 3 MORE years gets you an extra $2,173 a month!
And here’s the thing: delaying Social Security is a decision with a ripple effect that lasts for years. Now let’s see how much social security the same person would receive if they started taking the benefit it at age 62 versus 67 versus 70 and KEPT taking it until age 90. Here’s how that scenario looks:
•If you start at Age 62, they will receive social security for 28 years and get a total of $539,952.
•If they start taking it at Age 67, they’ll only be cashing in this benefit for 23 years, but they’ll get MORE money: $753,204.
•And if they wait all the way until Age 70, they’ll only receive social security for 20 years, a much shorter time, but a much bigger total pot of money: $907,200. That’s $367,000 more than if they started at age 62, even though it’s 8 less years! Keep in mind, this is simplified math that doesn’t even include cost-of-living adjustments over the decades.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking because it’s what my mother-in-law was thinking. You’re sick of your job and you don’t want to stay an extra second, let alone an extra five to eight years. Well, you may not have to. If you have other forms of retirement savings, you might be able to retire and live off of those first and then sign up for Social Security later. I simply want to encourage people to actively think this through and be strategic about taking social security. We are living longer, on average, which changes the math. Check with a trustworthy financial adviser who can help you weigh the pros and cons. I will link you to the Social Security Administration’s calculator from EasyMoneyShow.com/47. so you can plug in your own numbers and see if there’s a way for you to “make more” off of social security. ?
Link: Social Security Quick Benefit Calculator: www.ssa.gov/OACT/quickcalc/index.html
