Social Security Savings
Another great gem of wisdom from
SPEND
til THE END
Social Security Savings - Double Dip on Social
Security
SPEND til THE END
contains a
gem about Social Security savings. This involves combining individual Social Security benefits with
spousal benefits. There is
nothing in the Social Security rules that says that you cannot do this.
Until I read, SPEND til THE END,
my wife and I had decided to wait until our full retirement age to start
drawing our Social Security benefits. This book showed me that we were
leaving over $19,000 in benefits unclaimed.
Let me give you a little
background. I have worked in an executive job most of my life so I will
draw the maximum social security benefits. My wife worked in jobs that
withheld Social Security, she worked as a stay at home mom for many years
when our children were young, and later, she worked as a teacher in a
public school system that did not withhold Social Security.
She receives a small pension from the
Teacher Retirement System for her teacher employment. Her Social Security
benefit is fairly small, because she did not earn much under Social
Security and her Social Security benefit is reduced because of her
teacher's pension.
This means that she can draw her own
social security at age 62 and when she reaches 66, she can start to draw
benefits from my account as my spouse. The standard Social Security
spousal benefit is one-half of the other spouses benefit. Her spousal
benefit on my account will be much larger than her individual benefit even
after reduction for her teacher's pension.
Her benefit from 62 to 66 will be
approximately $400 per month after reduction for her teacher's pension. At
66, she will apply for spousal benefits under my account. This is the
double dip.
Without SPEND til THE
END, we would have waited until she turned 66 to start drawing
her benefits. That would leave 48 months of Social Security payments unclaimed
($400 X 48 months = $19,200). And when she starts taking the spousal
benefit on my account, it will be more than her individual benefit if she
had waited until age 66 to start drawing her own benefits.
It took less than a week to sign her up for her Social Security benefit. This can be done online very
easily. The Social Security representative called within three days
to verify her information and to start the direct deposit to her account.
I paid $17.16 (plus $3.99 shipping) for this book on Amazon and it made us $19,200 on just
this tip. Not a bad return.
This is just one of the many gems of
wisdom in SPEND til THE END. It is revolutionary in its
message. I highly recommend it to improve your standard of living now and
after you retire so you can really
SPEND til THE END. NOTE:
More detail
about this topic on pages 169 - 171 of
SPEND til THE END.
End Social Security Savings -
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