{"id":5663,"date":"2019-05-06T10:32:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billlosey.com\/?p=5663"},"modified":"2019-05-06T10:32:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:32:29","slug":"three-key-questions-to-answer-before-taking-social-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/three-key-questions-to-answer-before-taking-social-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Key Questions to Answer Before Taking Social Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong> <\/strong><em>When to start? Should I continue to work? How can I maximize my benefit?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social Security will\n be a critical component of your financial strategy in retirement, so \nbefore you begin taking it, you should consider three important \nquestions. The answers may affect whether you make\n the most of this retirement income source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When to Start?<\/strong>  The Social Security Administration gives citizens a choice on when they  decide to start to receive their Social Security benefit. You can&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Start benefits at age 62. <\/li><li>Claim them at your full retirement age. <\/li><li>Delay payments until age 70. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you claim early, \nyou can expect to receive a monthly benefit that will be lower than what\n you would have earned at full retirement. If you wait until age 70, you\n can expect to receive an even higher monthly\n benefit than you would have received if you had begun taking payments \nat your full retirement age.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When researching \nwhat timing is best for you, It\u2019s important to remember that many of the\n calculations the Social Security Administration uses are based on \naverage life expectancy. If you live to the average\n life expectancy, you\u2019ll eventually receive your full lifetime benefits.\n In actual practice, it\u2019s not quite that straightforward. If you happen \nto live beyond the average life expectancy, and you delay taking \nbenefits, you could end up receiving more money.\n The decision of when to begin taking benefits may hinge on whether you \nneed the income now or if you can wait, and additionally, whether you \nthink your lifespan will be shorter or longer than the average American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Should I Continue to Work?<\/strong>\n Besides providing you with income and personal satisfaction, spending a\n few more years in the workforce may help you to increase your\n retirement benefits. How? Social Security calculates your benefits \nusing a formula based on your 35 highest-earning years. As your \nhighest-earning years may come later in life, spending a few more years \nat the apex of your career might be a plus in the calculation.\n If you begin taking benefits prior to your full retirement age and \ncontinue to work, however, your benefits will be reduced by $1 for every\n $2 in earnings above the prevailing annual limit ($17,640 in 2018). If \nyou work during the year in which you attain\n full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced by $1 for every $3 \nin earnings over a different annual limit ($45,360 in 2018) until the \nmonth you reach full retirement age. After you attain your full \nretirement age, earned income no longer reduces benefit\n payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How Can I Maximize My Benefit?<\/strong> The easiest way to maximize your monthly Social Security is to simply wait until you turn age 70 before claiming your benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When to start? Should I continue to work? How can I maximize my benefit? Social Security will be a critical component of your financial strategy in retirement, so before you begin taking it, you should consider three important questions. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}