Top 10 social security tips that will impact your monthly income

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Key Takeaways:

There are 2728 rules in the social security handbook.
It’s on you to make sure you make the right social security decisions for your family.
A mistake is often irreversible; though you can stop and restart taking benefits – if you do make a mistake.
Below are the top 10 social security tips you need to know – that will impact your monthly income.

Bonus Tip at End:

It’s too risky to rely just on social security for monthly retirement income. I’ll show you strategies to generate high monthly income with low risk – no matter how much you have saved. This supplemental income can help make retirement stress-free.

Top 10 social security tips you need to know:

Tip 1: Know the correlation between longevity, age, and social security income.

If you wait until 70 to collect your retirement benefit, your retirement benefit starting at 70 can be as much as 76 percent higher than your age-62 retirement benefit, adjusted for inflation.
If you expect to live until your 90’s (you have good genes and are healthy overall), it would make sense to use other retirement income sources until you hit 70 – at which point you can get the highest payout.

Tip 2: If you are married, have the lower-income spouse take retirement benefits at 62

If you are the low-earning spouse, it may be better to take your retirement benefit starting at age 62 and then switch to the spousal benefit you can collect on your current or ex-spouse’s account starting at your full retirement age or age 70.

Tip 3: There is no advantage to waiting to start collecting spousal benefits after you reach your full retirement age.

Topic says it all.

Tip 4: There is no advantage to waiting to start collecting survivor benefits after you reach your full retirement age.

Topic says it all.

Tip 5: Understand “deemed filing”

Deemed filing means that when you file for either your retirement or your spouse’s benefit, you are required or “deemed” to file for the other benefit as well.
This gets rid of a lot of confusion amongst retirees who previously had to use techniques like file and suspend, etc.

Tip 6: Continue to work into your 60’s if you can.

You can significantly raise your retirement benefits by continuing to work into your sixties. You will also significantly raise the spousal, child benefits.

Tip 7: Get a pension? Understand the Windfall Elimination Provision.

If you are lucky enough to get a pension – the Windfall Elimination Provision impacts the amount of your retirement or disability benefit if you receive a pension from work where Social Security taxes were not taken out of your pay.

Tip 8: Understand Social Security Taxes.

Know that withdrawals from Roth IRAs are not taxed, but withdrawals from 401(k), 403(b), regular IRAs, and other tax-deferred accounts are.
Think about withdrawing from your tax-deferred accounts after you retire, but before you start collecting Social Security.
Look into moving to a state where there is no tax on social security income.

Tip 9: Stay married at least 10 years

Stay married for at least 10 years in order to collect spousal and survivor benefits from your ex-spouse if you get divorced.

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