What's a good source for learning about Social Security payments and options?

[disneysteve]

I've always done our retirement planning and projections without including Social Security. Now that we are nearing retirement, I figure I really ought to start including that in the plans. We are 56 and 57 so only a few years away from being able to claim at 62, not that we intend to do that.

I know I can log into the SS site and get the projections from them. Do their numbers assume I continue to work and earn the same income from now until my full retirement age? What if I retire tomorrow (I wish) but don't collect until I'm 67?

And I think there is something about my wife collecting based on my earnings rather than her own.

The reality is that we probably don't need nearly as large of a nest egg as I'm been aiming for once we factor in SS.

[HundredK]

Many moons ago, I used to work for Social Security. If you log onto their site, they actually do a fairly decent job in their public literature of explaining how the programs work and the many related rules. You might also want to think about things like whether you should stage your retirements so that one of you claims early and the other waits until FRA (full retirement age). They'll dock your monthly pay a bit if you retire early and there are also earnings limitations. Sometimes it works better if one spouse retires at 62 and then transfers to the spouse's record later. It's a good thing to start planning now!

[corn18]

Best book ever on SS:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981454283/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And SSA.gov has the best SS calculator:

https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/retire-calc.html

[scfr]

In Jane Bryant Quinn's book "How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide" she devotes an entire chapter (40 pages) to this topic.
I know you're not a big book reader, but it might be worth checking that book out from your library just to read that chapter. Or buy a used copy of the book (only $4.22 w/ free shipping for "used very good" quality from Better World Books), not necessarily to read cover-to-cover, but to keep on hand as a reference book. I recommend it.

She did a very brief article on the same topic for AARP (link below). It doesn't have nearly the detail of the book though. Near the bottom of the article she lists Helpful Resources. In addition to the SSA calculator, AARP has one, and there are several commercial ones listed. In her book she discusses all of the commercial ones in some detail, explaining what they can and cannot do,and recommends using at least 2 of the commercial calculators. The costs of the commercial calculators run from $20 - 250 depending on the level of detail and service you want.

Personally, I don't plan to use a commercial calculator until I'm closer to being qualified to pull the trigger on taking SS and I'm still about 5 years away from that. For now, the SSA and AARP calculators plus the info from the book are sufficient for me.

[MonkeyMama]

With the books, I'd just be careful of the publish dates and if they were updated for more recent changes to social security.
(I've taken a lot of SS classes for my professional license, and remember some pretty big changes a few years back).

I was just on the SSA website a few weeks ago and they have a great calculator now (you can change assumptions for future income). This calculator was not there last time I looked at the website, maybe a year ago. I mean, it wasn't customizable before like it is now.

[disneysteve]

I was just on the SSA website a few weeks ago and they have a great calculator now (you can change assumptions for future income). This calculator was not there last time I looked at the website, maybe a year ago. I mean, it wasn't customizable before like it is now.

Good to know. I'll check that out. It's been a while since I looked.

Thanks for all of the recommendations everyone.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

They closed the loophole for collecting and putting on hold spousal SS benefit. Definitely read the most updated stuff because it keeps changing

[Like2Plan]

And I think there is something about my wife collecting based on my earnings rather than her own.

SS is actually very fair about this. SS will run the calculations both ways (on her own record or as a spousal benefit) and she gets to claim the higher amount. The spousal benefit is 1/2 of your Primary insurance amount--with reductions for claiming prior to full retirement age.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html

I did Maximize my social security for DH a few years ago. It is a one year subscription and you can run multiple scenarios on the software for a year. ($40 for one year) https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/
Even though they had some recent changes in the law, I didn't see much benefit beyond the one year.

In general, though claiming at 70 is usually the optimal option (if you can afford to wait) assuming a normal life span per the actuary tables. It comes out to be exactly the same (lower reduced amount claimed at 62 vs higher amount claimed at 70), but the biggest benefit is for your survivor who will receive a higher (inflation adjusted) amount. And, of course, its always great to win against the house and live much longer than the actuary tables.

[disneysteve]

I was just on the SSA website a few weeks ago and they have a great calculator now (you can change assumptions for future income).

Can you point me to that calculator? I can't seem to find one that lets me pick when my income will stop but then not collect SS at that same time. For example, I want to be able to plug in that my current income will continue for 3 more years and then go to zero.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I went on the SS website and I don't have enough working credits. My stipend from years 2002-2010 don't count as income though I paid taxes on it because no SS was taken out. I declared it. I wonder if I did that wrong? The school at that time told it was taxable and DH was always taxed 2000-2005 and he has no years of SS income during those years also on stipend so I am guessing it was taxable but not for SS. Anyway based on my working I get $963/month. But DH gets $3300/months FRA because he's maxed out since 2005 till now. So if we were to get SS at 67 FRA I believe i get 50% of his so $1600?

[HundredK]

SS is actually very fair about this. SS will run the calculations both ways (on her own record or as a spousal benefit) and she gets to claim the higher amount.

Another blip from my time working there - one thing we were taught at that time (can't say if this still holds true), was to only tell someone if there's a better approach for them IF THEY ASK. So they had to explicitly ask, do you see anything better I could be doing, or any benefits I could qualify for that I'm not getting, or any larger amount I could be getting? And then I could walk through it with them and explore options. If they didn't ask, I couldn't be nice and offer up that info. That taught me, always ask people everything, even if you think it's a dumb question. Never know what rules they're dealing with.

[MonkeyMama]

Can you point me to that calculator? I can't seem to find one that lets me pick when my income will stop but then not collect SS at that same time. For example, I want to be able to plug in that my current income will continue for 3 more years and then go to zero.

It was just the calculator that pops up when you log into SSA website. You can probably estimate $0 for future income. Probably can't get as complex as changing income over time, but I'd probably just put "0 future income" to give you a baseline to compare to any more complex online calculators. Or to use as a loose estimate.

[Like2Plan]

Another blip from my time working there - one thing we were taught at that time (can't say if this still holds true), was to only tell someone if there's a better approach for them IF THEY ASK. So they had to explicitly ask, do you see anything better I could be doing, or any benefits I could qualify for that I'm not getting, or any larger amount I could be getting? And then I could walk through it with them and explore options. If they didn't ask, I couldn't be nice and offer up that info. That taught me, always ask people everything, even if you think it's a dumb question. Never know what rules they're dealing with.

This is from the SS website link I provided above, "If a spouse is eligible for a retirement benefit based on his or her own earnings, and if that benefit is higher than the spousal benefit, then we pay the retirement benefit. Otherwise we pay the spousal benefit."

Another data point that I recently learned of was from a family member who had been divorced. When her ex-spouse passed away, SS called her to come into SS. They switched her over to the survivor benefit from her ex-spouse's earning record which was higher than what she received from her own earnings record. (She didn't even realize that she was eligible for this.)

I think someone touched on this on another thread (and I didn't mention it above), but in order to receive the spousal benefit (for folks who are still married) the worker has to file for their SS. So, if the wife wants to file earlier than DS plans to file she would have to file based off of her own earnings record to start with. On the other hand, if you are divorced (and you meet all of the other requirements), you can file for the spousal benefit without the ex-spouse first filing for social security.

Anyway, the "Maximize my social security" program I mentioned above takes into consideration a lot of these what have yous and what nots and tries to optimize. It comes up with a recommendation on the best filing strategy for both spouses.

[HundredK]

This is from the SS website link I provided above, "If a spouse is eligible for a retirement benefit based on his or her own earnings, and if that benefit is higher than the spousal benefit, then we pay the retirement benefit. Otherwise we pay the spousal benefit."

Another data point that I recently learned of was from a family member who had been divorced. When her ex-spouse passed away, SS called her to come into SS. They switched her over to the survivor benefit from her ex-spouse's earning record which was higher than what she received from her own earnings record. (She didn't even realize that she was eligible for this.)

I think someone touched on this on another thread (and I didn't mention it above), but in order to receive the spousal benefit (for folks who are still married) the worker has to file for their SS. So, if the wife wants to file earlier than DS plans to file she would have to file based off of her own earnings record to start with. On the other hand, if you are divorced (and you meet all of the other requirements), you can file for the spousal benefit without the ex-spouse first filing for social security.

Anyway, the "Maximize my social security" program I mentioned above takes into consideration a lot of these what have yous and what nots and tries to optimize. It comes up with a recommendation on the best filing strategy for both spouses.

Yes, they are very good about putting all of the information online. They don't try to hide anything, but at the same time this stuff can be hard for folks to understand, so it never hurts to ask because the representative might notice something about your situation that you were unaware of (and at least when I worked there, you were not allowed to volunteer that info without a direct request to do so).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

When do you think they will reform SS? Or change how they pay out benefits? We obviously aren't out of money yet. It's going to be awhile right? I don't count on it at all but it's not nice to look at and dream.