Delay of social security is not always paid – The Motley Fool

Social Security is a major source of income for millions of retirees, and the design of an archiving strategy is important if you want to get the most out of your benefits. The tricky part is that unlike Medicare, which begins at the age of 65, you get an eight-year window to claim social security starting at 62 and ending at 70. Well, technically you do not need a file of 70 – you can wait longer than that, but there is no financial incentive to do so.

You are eligible to collect your full monthly benefits based on your income history when you have full retirement age. That age is either 66, 67 or 66 and a certain number of months, depending on the year you were born.

If you start taking benefits earlier than full retirement age, you lose some of these payouts, the extent of which will depend on how early you file. However, the maximum reduction you are facing is 30%, which would come into play if you were to enter 62 when your full retirement age is 67 years.

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There is also the opportunity to stop claiming benefits beyond full retirement age. For each year you wait, you will provide late retirement credit that increases your benefits by 8% a year up to 70 years (therefore, 70 is generally considered the latest age of file).

Many economic experts advocate waiting until 70 to take benefits. That way, you get a guaranteed boost that stays in force for the rest of your life, and with the elderly living longer, the extra income has less strain on your next-of-kin and gives you more financial flexibility later in life. But while there is good advice in theory, it doesn't always keep in practice.

Why Don't Wait till 70 to Claim Social Security

When many people think of maximizing their social security, they focus on doing so on a monthly basis. But in fact, your goal must be to make the most of social security on a lifetime and if you do not expect to live a very long life, it does not make sense to delay benefits.

How do you know how long you should live? You can not. But you can assess the likelihood of living a longer life versus a shorter one by evaluating a few things.

The first is your health. If you are overweight in retirement, have a number of well-known medical conditions and maintain harmful habits such as smoking, the chances of living well in the 80s are lower than for someone who has a healthy weight, have no known medical problems, and have Never as much as picked up a cigarette.

The second factor to evaluate is your family history. Have your parents lived long? What about their parents? And how are the siblings' health? All of these points will give you some indication of how long you will probably live, even if it is not an exact number. And if the age group you're landing is relatively young, then it's a bad idea to file for social security schemes for 70 years, because you might be able to increase your benefits on a monthly basis, losing your life. [19659002] Imagine you are entitled to a monthly $ 1600 benefit at a full retirement age of 67 years. Waiting until 70 will give you an extra $ 384 a month, which may seem like a good thing. But here's the catch – if you only live to the age of 77, you will actually end up losing over $ 25,000 lifetime for social security by filing at 70 against 67. In fact, in this scenario, you are paying on so Early as possible in 62 years, despite reducing monthly benefits, you will earn $ 9,600 more in lifetime income than you would receive on time of 67.