Getting Your Financial Ducks In A Row Rotating Header Image

delayed benefit

Early Social Security Filing Examples

Working through some examples comparing filing early versus delaying filing until later ages. Sometimes it’s better to file early.

Age Adjustments for Social Security

FRA has adjusted, why haven’t there been other age adjustments for Social Security benefits? Leaving them alone works in the system’s favor.

How PIA Relates to Your Benefit

How can you determine what your Social Security benefit may be if you’re not filing at your FRA? You have your PIA, but now what?

The Protective Filing Statement

Do you know how to use a protective filing statement to your advantage? It can be useful if you aren’t sure when to file for benefits.

Disability Benefits at Retirement Age

What happens at full retirement age when you’ve been receiving disability benefits all along? Do you have options?

Increase Your Social Security Benefit After You’ve Filed: File and Suspend Doesn’t Have to Be All at Once

Note: with the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law, File & Suspend and Restricted Application have been effectively eliminated for anyone born in 1954 or later. If born before 1954 there are some options still available, but these are limited as well. Please see the article The Death of File & Suspend and Restricted Application for more details. We’ve discussed the File and Suspend activity many times on this blog, but most of the time we refer to the activity as happening all at the same time.  This is because very often we’re talking about one spouse setting the table for the other spouse to begin receiving Spousal Benefits. There is another situation where File and Suspend could be used – you could earn delayed retirement credits after you had already started receiving your retirement benefits by suspending your benefit.  You must be at least Full […]

Why It Can Be So Important to Delay Social Security Benefits

It seems like every time I write an article about Social Security benefits that includes a recommendation to delay benefits, I get a lot of responses from well-meaning folks who disagree, sometimes vehemently, with the conclusions. There are several points of view that I see in the responses, all believing that you should start taking benefits as soon as you’re eligible: you never know how long you’re going to live; Social Security is going broke, we all know it; IT’S MINE, DADGUMMIT, THEY OWE IT TO ME; and it’s all part of a huge conspiracy; among other reasons too numerous to mention. Believe me, I have no reason to recommend that people do something that isn’t in their best interests.  As a financial planner, my job is to help folks do things that are in their best financial interests all the time.  Sometimes those things that I recommend run counter […]