In an earlier post, we talked about the Social Security Earnings Test, which is applied when you are receiving your benefit early (before Full Retirement Age) and you earn over certain limits. Briefly, in the years before the year you reach FRA, when you earn salary in excess of the limit, the Social Security Administration [...]
Posts under ‘social security’
Your Account(?) at Social Security
One of the biggest misunderstandings about the Social Security system is that each individual has a specific “account” which holds all the money you’ve had withheld from your paycheck over the years. Nothing could be further from the truth… as we’ve mentioned before on this blog, the Social Security system is a pay-as-you-go system (largely) [...]
Medicare is Not Automatic
If you’re nearing age 65, there’s something you need to know: unless you’re currently receiving Social Security benefits (having filed early), you need to take action to make sure you receive your Medicare benefits in a timely fashion. Timing What this means is that you need to sign up for Medicare three months prior to [...]
Additional Social Security Resources
There are a few resources, above and beyond the guides available at socialsecurity.gov, that I’ve located for you – to help you as you make decisions and learn about your Social Security benefits. The good folks over at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College have developed several resources that you can find at [...]
More Information About the Ultimate “Do-Over”
If you don’t know about this tactic, you can read the article The Ultimate “Do Over” by clicking the link. Briefly, this tactic provides a way for you to file for your Social Security benefit and then later, after your benefit would have been potentially increased had you not filed, you can re-pay what you’ve [...]
Social Security Spousal Coordination Rule of Thumb
You know that there are quite a few components to keep in mind as you and your spouse plan for your Social Security retirement benefits. It can be quite a challenge to work through all of them on your own. I recently ran across some old notes that I had from a seminar I attended [...]
The Earnings Test is Specific to the Individual
As I’ve mentioned before, I often receive questions from readers that include topics that may be of general interest to my reading community. When this happens, I will post the question and my answer to that question, with the names omitted and some details changed to protect identity. Note: you can send in your own [...]
How Remarriage Affects Widow(er)s and Ex-Spouses Differently
The Social Security Administration has a special way to treat former spouses differently from widows and widowers with regard to benefits when the person in question remarries. This only affects ex-Spouses while the other partner from the former marriage is still living. When the former spouse dies, the surviving spouse is treated as a widow [...]
When it Makes Sense to Take Social Security Early
In the past, we’ve discussed how beneficial it can be to delay receiving Social Security benefits as long as you can. You can see this discussion in the article Ah, Sweet Procrastination – it makes good financial sense to delay receiving your benefit to age 70 in many cases, but of course not all. The [...]
Your Social Security Benefits Statement
Every year, long about three months before your birthday, you should receive a statement from the Social Security Administration detailing your benefits projected to your potential retirement age(s). While the statement is designed to be pretty well self-explanatory, I thought it might be beneficial to review the statement so that you know what the statement [...]
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