Social Security Benefits/Retirement Lesson

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ProjectBazza said:
Bingo!


Our financial advisor has been very helpful in helping us determine when I can (my wife says "should") retire. Have them run the numbers, and then balance this against your desire to leave, your health (physical as well as psychological), your budget (can you make it smaller?), etc. Only you can make that call.
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I can make it financially, pension and 401K alone. My wife is 9 years younger, and she makes more than I ever did, so by the time she hits 62 she'll be able to retire, as well. The decision to retire wasn't a knee jerk reaction to a bad week, trust me. For the sake of this discussion, making sure you can afford to retire and live the life you want is paramount. My goal was to let everyone know there's some front-end time to the retirement process and make them aware of the hiccups I encountered.
 
Rick@Laysons said:
I just went thru this a couple of months ago.

My Full Retirement Age(66yrs 8mos) was April 1st of this year.

I tried to do the "myaccount" BS on their website with no luck(comments withheld!!!!!!).

Long story short.......after about four months of trying with no luck, I dialed up the 800 number, got my appointment(phone call appointment) set, and waited for them to call me.

I will say that they did call EXACTLY when they said they would.

The lady on the other end of the line was VERY helpful and understanding. When it was all said and done, I got all "back-pay" from April 1 plus my cuurent month that was owed. She also got me all signed up for the Medicare as well....all in one fell swoop.

This was THE MOST POSITIVE experience with any gov't agency in the 67+ years I've been on this earth!!!!!
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Congratulations! See, I'm trying to save another one of us from going through this BS. Funny thing is when I called SSA for Medicare, I got an appointment about a week later and the rep. had me signed up in less than 5 minutes! She said, "Your all set" and my reply was "That's it?". I will say every SSA rep I've talked to on this issue, about 5, has been 100% helpful and very nice!
 
You don't have a SSA office somewhat near you?? I retired at 55 and went to the office near me just before turning 62 and was able to get my questions answered in person. I'll be 75 in around the middle of 26 and still make a little bit of money but don't work for anyone anymore. I still file every year because it's best to do that according to my advisor.
 

middleagecrisis said:
Congratulations! See, I'm trying to save another one of us from going through this BS. Funny thing is when I called SSA for Medicare, I got an appointment about a week later and the rep. had me signed up in less than 5 minutes! She said, "Your all set" and my reply was "That's it?". I will say every SSA rep I've talked to on this issue, about 5, has been 100% helpful and very nice!
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Luckily, we still have a local office. My newly retired friends have nothing but good to say about it.
 
Looks like no one is going to turn this political and that's great and if someone does, they will be captured, strung up to a tree limb feet first and beat with baseball bats until.......... :lol:
 
Cranky said:
You don't have a SSA office somewhat near you?? I retired at 55 and went to the office near me just before turning 62 and was able to get my questions answered in person. I'll be 75 in around the middle of 26 and still make a little bit of money but don't work for anyone anymore. I still file every year because it's best to do that according to my advisor.
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We do, but I asked that question and was told no, because of the authentication issue. Didn't make sense to me, maybe a scheduling thing? I'll drive by on the way home, pop my head in the office and see what they have to say, lol.
 
middleagecrisis said:
That was actually a suggestion both Login.gov and SSA threw out there. But all three of us agreed it would probably take me just as long to do that and have it catch up in the system, as waiting until Jan. 27th.
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Well you know nothing beets government efficiency, I cant wait till they are running our healthcare.
 
middleagecrisis said:
We do, but I asked that question and was told no, because of the authentication issue. Didn't make sense to me, maybe a scheduling thing? I'll drive by on the way home, pop my head in the office and see what they have to say, lol.
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IIRC.....I think I used my DD214 form to authenticate....military.
 
Went thru the same type of thing. Got the call from the office that then sent an e-mail with instructions. I went to the post office with the paper, they verified it was me and on we went. I waited past retirement age and got a nice back pay of six months. OH! I SO WANTED TO BUY A NEW TOY! But you know what? Insurances and LTHC gobbled up more than half of it. BTW, my payday is the fourth Wednesday of the month also. Enjoy your retirement and keep yourself busy!
 
I had to do some kind of verification process as I have a suffix on my name and my mom hated it, so she had my social without it.

See if they can do a webcam verification, IIRC, that is what I did and it wasn't a two month wait. Set up the laptop, they got my DL/SS card and maybe a birth certificate. Made the comment about my Mom's disdain for the suffix...LOL Was pretty quick from what I remember.

My first payment was Oct birthday, too late in the month, so I got my first payment in Dec for the Nov period. The cutoff is odd IMO.
 
Bodyperson said:
But... think about this. Every year is an 8 % increase. Pretty good investment until 70.
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Yes this is the enticement that you hear all the time. The amount of money that you forego by claiming late is then lost - perhaps years of monthly SSI checks. Yes you get more money per month after that, but you have to live to be 86 for the higher monthly payments to get you to break even. Look at your health and your family history of longevity and the possibility of accidental death before you forego the cash. Personally, I have taken SSI when I turned 62 (I'm 69 now). I figure that I'd rather have the money when I'm 62 to 85 when I can still do a lot, than getting more money when I'm drooling in my oatmeal and trying to remember who the familiar person talking to me is (my brother?, my best friend?). I've got 8 years of payments in my pocket by the time the 70 year maximum benefit kicks in.
 
str12-340 said:
Yes this is the enticement that you hear all the time. The amount of money that you forego by claiming late is then lost - perhaps years of monthly SSI checks. Yes you get more money per month after that, but you have to live to be 86 for the higher monthly payments to get you to break even. Look at your health and your family history of longevity and the possibility of accidental death before you forego the cash. Personally, I have taken SSI when I turned 62 (I'm 69 now). I figure that I'd rather have the money when I'm 62 to 85 when I can still do a lot, than getting more money when I'm drooling in my oatmeal and trying to remember who the familiar person talking to me is (my brother?, my best friend?). I've got 8 years of payments in my pocket by the time the 70 year maximum benefit kicks in.
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Yup I think you are correct. ACA comes into play before 65 so there is that. It all depends on informed individuals and this thread is working on that.
 
str12-340 said:
Yes this is the enticement that you hear all the time. The amount of money that you forego by claiming late is then lost - perhaps years of monthly SSI checks. Yes you get more money per month after that, but you have to live to be 86 for the higher monthly payments to get you to break even. Look at your health and your family history of longevity and the possibility of accidental death before you forego the cash. Personally, I have taken SSI when I turned 62 (I'm 69 now). I figure that I'd rather have the money when I'm 62 to 85 when I can still do a lot, than getting more money when I'm drooling in my oatmeal and trying to remember who the familiar person talking to me is (my brother?, my best friend?). I've got 8 years of payments in my pocket by the time the 70 year maximum benefit kicks in.
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I did the math too and started at 62. Been getting more than I put in and have been doing that for several years now. I'm getting close to 75.
 
trapster said:
I think the moral of this story is not to rely on the government for your retirement, It doesn't matter who is in charge.
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If you are married.....better hide some cash! My X left me in 17 and all she wanted was the money!
 
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