WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
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w fourcy dot com. This week and every week, we
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will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
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as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,
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let's join your hosts, Banita Bell Anderson, as together we
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start with Asking Good Questions.
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Hello, this is Benita Bell Anderson and welcome to the
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Ask Good Questions podcast. Today we are part two of
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a three part series on social security, and today we
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are dealing with what baby boomers need to know about
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their retirement income. Those people that they've been retiring but
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there's a few more of them to retire, and there's
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a whole bunch of us out there. So first I
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have a little teaser for you before we get started.
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I'll invite there we go. Okay, here's my little teaser
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in life. Would you rather be early or would you
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rather be delayed? Would you rather pay a penalty or
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would you rather get a bonus? So I just want
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you to think about that and we'll return to those later. Right, So,
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this is what baby bloomers need to know. I am
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going to go through a bunch of things that have
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to do with this. This is such a huge important question.
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And let me just also tell you I have been
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teaching in person classes for many many years, community colleges, libraries,
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things like that. Now I'm doing it online with a podcast.
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Who would have known? But anyway, here we are. I
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want you to know what the problem is. People are
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hurting their retirements by making terrible, costly decisions about social security.
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People say, why don't they matters? Yes, it does matter,
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and I'm going to show you many many different ways
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why it matters. Okay. Also, I want you to know
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that I have a handout and I'm also offering you
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a PDF analysis, a report. You're going to email me
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and if you have questions or if you would like
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the report that would basically tell you the top like
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five different ways you could do so security. That is
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complementary a professional evaluation. If you'd like to have this,
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if you'd like to discuss this, there's a small charge
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for that. But the complementary analysis is yours for really
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figuring out what's the best way to do this. There
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are some things to know about sob security. You have
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a lot of you have not a lot, but do
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you have different options in how you can claim this?
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These decisions. If you're sixty five, there's a possibility I
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know some of you may say, no, I'm not going
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to live that long, but there's a possibility that you
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could be looking at the next thirty years that choice
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of what you do now could impact both spouses. And
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the system is not bankrupt. I'm going to talk to
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you about that is. It is also not a Ponzi
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scheme and the benefits likely helped the family member that
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you are aware of. Your friends also are not experts
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on this, so if you want to know Also another thing,
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little disclosure, I'm a financial advisor These are my opinions,
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but because I've been teaching this class for a long time,
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I do have opinions about what I see and what
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I've seen with clients. You're going to want to know
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the following. Is it going to be there for me?
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How much can I expect to receive? When should I apply?
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That's the big question. How can I maximize my benefits?
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And will so scurty be enough to live on in retirement? Yeah?
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So if something that really you know, your parents probably
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never asked how it was possible to maximize benefits, there's
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absolutely nothing wrong with using the soil security rules to
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your advantage. So today we're going to talk about ways
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you can maximize your Social Security benefits simply by knowing
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the rules right and making smart decisions. That's why I'm
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doing this. I want you to make smart decisions. And finally,
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you're wondering if SO security is going to be enough
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to live on in retirement, You probably already know the
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answer to that. Sole security represents about forty percent of
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the average retirees in total income, but by coordinating Social
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Security with the rest of your retirement income plan, you
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can pursue a comfortable worry free retirement. Okay, that's what
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I think you would probably agree with me that you
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want to know. So most people tend to minimize the
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value of so security if they believe that they're likely
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to get something back from the system at all. They
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think it will be a minimal payment and not enough
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to really count on. But social security is more valuable
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than many people realize. So there's there are many different
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ways that we're going to look at this today, and
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so if you worry, well, if it is going to
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be there for you. This has led to a lot
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of misunderstanding and irrational fears about the solvency of the
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social security system. So let's look at what the Social
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Security Trustees say. Every year they publish a comprehensive report
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showing the long range outlook for sole security. So it
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was designed as a pay as you go system, and
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payroll taxes from current workers goes through a trust fund
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and goes out to pay for current retirees. So right now,
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that trust fund holds about twelve two point seven trillion,
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which is invested in special issue treasury securities, and as
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baby boomers start retiring, those trust fund assets will gradually
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be drawn down. So over the next seventy five years.
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They're basically saying that there's enough assets to pay one
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hundred percent of promise benefits until twenty thirty four. At
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that point, if nothing is done, and that's the operative word,
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if nothing is done to reform the system, then income
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will be sufficient to cover only eighty one percent of
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promise benefits. So what would it take to really restore solvency.
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There's a couple of things. I have taught this for years.
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Maximum earning subject to soci Security taxes at one hundred
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and seventy six one hundred. I think they need to
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dramatically increase that so that more people continue paying into
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Social Security for a longer time, or just eliminated together.
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I also think, and I've said this for years as well,
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I think that it's possible that the normal retirement age
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could rise from sixty seven to seventy. It's also possible
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that they might lower benefits for future retirees, that is possible,
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or they might do something with the formula and reduce
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the cost of living adjustments on that. So those are
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all things that could happen. But really the bottom line
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for you, if you're sixty five to seventy right now,
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your benefits are not likely to be affected by soil
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security reform. However, are kids. I've got kids in their forties.
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Let's let I'm telling them you need to Yes, so
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security will be there, but you need to have your
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own retirement savings as well. So what is a better
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way to think about sold security? Really? What do you
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think it is? Inflation protected income? You paid the premium
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in every paycheck, so it'd be smart about how and
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when to collect, right, Okay, that's insight number one. So
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if your monthly income is two thousand today and you
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live twenty or thirty more years, you look at this,
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that's significant. Five hundred and eighty three almost a million
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dollars in benefits. That's that's a big deal. I want
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you to really think about that. So how and when
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you take it is important. And because it offers an
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annual inflation adjustment a benefit in ten years that was
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two thousand and now could go to twenty four thirty eight,
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But in thirty years it would be thirty six hundred
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from two thousand. So that's assuming a two percent annual
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cost of living increase. I always say, especially for the
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higher earning wayjourner delay taking your sold security because if
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you die before your spouse, you want her to have
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the maximum benefit that she can have, and you want
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that larger. You want the cost of living to be
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calculated on a larger amount. Okay, So how much can
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you expect to receive your benefit depends on how much
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you earned over your working career. Like for me, my
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first husband was in the military. We were overseas in
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Germany with the US Air Force in the nineteen years.
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There's if I look at my history, there was a
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whole bunch of years where I was having babies and
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we were overseas and I wasn't earning a wage. But
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if you've been consistently working, you're going to have a
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fairly decent benefit. And the age at which you apply
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for benefits is important to really realize. So I'm not
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going to go into the math. But so security benefits
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are calculated, are talied up in index for inflation, and
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the highest thirty five years of earnings are averaged. Okay,
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and then there's something called bend points, and that benefit
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is increased each year by the cost of living increases. Okay.
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So I'm not going to spend too much time on
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this formula. But I'm just telling you there is a
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formula about how this is calculated. So the longer you
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put into the system and the longer you wait, you're
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going to benefit. And there's a break even point. Like
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if you started at sixty two, not only are you
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going to get penalized and have a much lower benefit,
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but you're you're gonna see that like between usually between
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seventy eight to eighty two. If you would have waited,
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you're going to be receiving much more in those later years.
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So you may say, well, that's good to know, but
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I shouldn't. Why shouldn't I just claim at sixty two?
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I can't make that much difference, Right, Well, your monthly
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benefit here's number two insight. Your monthly benefit will be
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reduced if you claim early. That's just period, end of story.
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It may also be reduced for taxes and Medicare premiums. Right,
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and benefits could be withheld if you're working. I'm going
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to tell you. I'll tell you several times, don't work
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and take those security at the same time, don't don't
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don't do it. So when should I apply for benefits?
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Number time? Number one would always be wait to do
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benefits until your full retirement age. Your health status has
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something to do with it. You're a life expectancy, your
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need for income, whether or not you plan to work,
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and survivor needs. Those are all huge factors. And yes,
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I've had people say, you can't tell me when I'm
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going to die. No, I can't. I get that. But
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if if you have a reasonable idea of what your
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health status is, if you have a reasonable idea of
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what your family history is for life expectancy, think about it.
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If you're still working, don't touch this. Wait until you're done,
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wait until seventy two to start taking it. Will so
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security be enough to live in retirement? Probably not? Maybe,
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like I said, maybe forty percent. Right, So here's what
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that fra. If you've seen that term, it means full
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retirement age. Most of you listening to this are probably
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nineteen sixty and later. Your full retirement age is probably
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age sixty seven, and so if you apply for early benefits,
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it can be reduced. Right, if your full retirement age
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is sixty seven and you apply at sixty two, it's
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going to be reduced thirty percent. And that's permanent. You're
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never gonna make it up. And so let me show
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you what that means. If you apply after full retirement age,
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you get something called delayed credits. So it's eight percent
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of year. And so if you look at the last column,
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it could be an extra twenty four percent eight percent
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a year times three years, So you're going to have
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an extra twenty four percent in your monthly benefit. If
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you wait until age seventy plus, you're going to have
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a higher cost of living increase, right, because you're dealing
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with a higher number. So make sure that you go
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out to your to Social Security dot gov. Make sure
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that you go in and look at your account. If
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you do, email me for the complimentary analysis. I'm going
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to need your your estimated benefits from your Social Security account. Okay,
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So why here's another reason why bigger checks now mean
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bigger checks later. So if you started benefits with the COLA,
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so like if you started at age sixty seven and
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it was thirty three hundred a month, now at age seven,
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and you waited and you wait until seventy, that's like
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another thousand dollars. So bigger checks are going to come
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because of having a little bit of patience in starting.
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And I know I'm going fast, but there's a lot
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of information to cover it a little bit of time.
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Here's more. If you if you have a benefit age
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seventy and it was forty three fifty nine, if you
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claim at seventy and you do happen to live to
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one hundred, that could be seventy eight hundred a month.
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That's a big deal. Even if you live to be
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eighty five, that's fifty eight sixty six month. I mean,
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what I'm saying is this is not small potatoes. This
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is a big commitment on the on the US government's part.
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So how do you maximize your benefits? You need to
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get educated, you need to examine your earnings record from
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your You've gone in, You've gone and found your Social