Category: Social Security
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When Should You Start Taking Social Security Benefits?
With Social Security, you can start taking benefits as early 62 if you’re willing to take a hit on your overall benefits. Depending on a number of factors, if you start taking Social Security payments at a reduced rate when you’re 62, your total benefit could be reduced by as much as 25%. To maximize…
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Social Security Earnings Test
If you earn a salary and want to collect benefits from social security, you have to pass the social security administration’s “earnings test.” While the earnings test looks like a penalty on those who collect a salary, it’s really not and I’ll explain why in a moment. First, to calculate your “penalty,” you have to…
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Your Tax Dollar – 12.4% In, 20% Out to Social Security
Over 20% of every tax dollar paid by every American goes to paying out Social Security benefits to existing retirees. Twenty percent to existing retirees, not retirees that are going to retire in the future, just the ones collecting checks right now. Did you know that 6.2% of your salary goes towards Social Security and…
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10 Retirement Resolutions: Review Your Social Security Statement
US News and World Report had a little piece where they discussed some good New Year’s resolutions related to retirement and I thought that I’d put each of them through their paces. The sixth retirement resolution was to review your Social Security statement. Watch for your Social Security statement in the mail each year, says…
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Motley Fool’s 5 Retirement Must Knows
If you enjoy a nice helping of humor along with the usual dry subject of personal finance, Motley Fool is the website for you. I was poking around their content rich site the other day when I decided to pop my head into their retirement section and found an article written by Robert Brokamp (TMF…
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Planning For Retirement At Any Age
The “Retirement and Planning Center” at Yahoo Finance has a great article from USA Today that outlines a retirement strategy for every age group – 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59. As expected, the younger you are the more aggressive (emphasis on growth) they recommend you be and…
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When Should I Collect Social Security?
Gerri Willis’ Top Tips column (wasn’t it Five Tips?) recently tackled the subject of when you should collect social security and what I gathered from her advice was that it depends. You can start collecting social security when you hit the age of 62 and you must start collecting it when you hit full retirement…