Roadmap to Retirement: Obstacle #5 – Social Security Risk

Takeaway: Choose wisely.

How could your Social Security benefit be a risk? Fair question.

Many people assume that there is *one* Social Security claiming strategy that equally applies to everyone. In fact, a lot of people claim Social Security before their Full Retirement Age (FRA) which may not be the right move for them.

There are so many different factors that go into which claiming strategy works for your particular situation. As an example, let’s look at the impact of claiming early or late based on your FRA.

Your Full Retirement Age is defined as the age at which retirees are entitled to their full monthly benefits. Your FRA is determined by the year you were born (see chart below). Depending on whether you claim Social Security before or after your FRA can dramatically decrease or increase your benefit, respectively.

Notice in the illustration above, both Bill and Jill’s FRA are age 66, and their FRA benefit is $2,000 a month.

If Bill claims his benefit at 62 (BEFORE his FRA), he will begin receiving $1,500 a month. If Jill claims at age 70 (AFTER her FRA), she will begin receiving $2,640 a month.

If both live to age 90, Bill will have received $504,000, and Jill will have received over $633,000.

A number of factors go into which claiming strategy is right for you: your age, life expectancy, work history, marital status, etc.

ACTION ITEM:

• Go to ssa.gov and retrieve your most recent statement
• Verify that your work history is accurate (clerical errors have happened, and it’s better to catch them sooner rather than later)
• Talk about which claiming strategies would be right for your situation.

To get started on your Roadmap to Retirement, request an appointment by calling our team at (877) 313-4080 or going online at www.equity1inc.com/contact.

NOTE: Equity 1 is not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. This information should not be construed as specific advice, but rather as information for readers to be equipped to talk to an authorized Social Security Administration official.