How old were you when you started taking Social Security?

[Shadow01]

My father and his 5 brothers all passed before they made it to 75. I’ll be drawing at 62.

 

[gregkl]

What do you folks that draw before age 65 do for insurance?

 

[Farmerjon]

What do you folks that draw before age 65 do for insurance?

EXACTLY, my question. My insurance from age 62 until 65 would eat up my teacher's pension. I can't afford to retire until 65 due to then I can get on Medicare or whatever it is called. I turn 60 in Sept.

 

[Ingomike]

There are a varity of ways the insurance piece may be covered besides buying it yourself.

A spouse with employer provided coverage one can join.

Previous employer or union covering it. Often a part of a buyout incentive to retire.

These are the most common…

 

[Nazgul]

My wife was still working as a teacher when I retired. I worked part time at the school and got cheap insurance for 3 years, needed to do something anyhow. Got some good insurance that covers what medicare doesn't.

Wife retired at 60. The school offered a lump sum for teachers to retire and it pays her insurance until she is 65.

Don

 

[Creedmoor]

Lots of very good advice in here. Next thing for us to figure out is when to start my wifes social security?

This thread made me realize that the longer I work the more my exs SS check will be when she retires.


Kicks rocks.

 

[04FXSTS]

I said earlier I went to my full retirement at 66 which got me more per month opposed to 62 and I am glad. Where I retired from there were two people that did the same thing and neither of them lived long enough to collect a retirement check.
One was diagnosed with a brain tumor the weak he retired. The other used to brag about never seeing a doctor since he got out of the Army in 1973. It was obvious to most of his co-workers he had cancer but he did not care and wouldn't see a doctor.
I have had cancer and know other people that have and it was caught early. If you take care of your health and see a doctor regularly and catch it early you can survive. Jim.

 

[tim87tr]

Then consider yourself a very lucky man and that many of us here are envious.
My experience was a little different, I started hating my job while I was filling out the application for employment, the job itself sucked, but that's why they call it work. It was good pay, benefits, retirement plans and job security.
34 long years later, retired at 55.........................that's right, suck it government.

I didn't notice the problems until the last 10 years. Otherwise our story is about the same.

I’m struggling with this right now. I was laid off a year ago at the end of the pandemic and I am now 60 1/2. No Debts other than the mortgage. My wife passed in 2014 from cancer at the age of 51.

Other than the mortgage, insurance is my biggest bill. But I recently found out I could draw on my wife’s Social Security since I became 60 (widowers benefit). This may save me from having to go back to work since I can draw on hers until my full retirement age and then take mine which will be significantly more. If I wait until 70 I can get even more, I’ve been told it goes up about 8% every year over your retirement age you wait.

Both parents lived until 82.

We met and sat beside you at the NWI meet last Fall. You seemed like a person full of energy that would enjoy retirement. Appears you've found the pathway. Do you like to travel? DM me anytime, I'll give you reasons to retire

 

[Pepi]

62

 

[dvd1955]

Didn't see this mentioned, but if you are withdrawing from your 401k this will most likely count as income and your social security will be taxed.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Didn't see this mentioned, but if you are withdrawing from your 401k this will most likely count as income and your social security will be taxed.

This was one factor that I am trying to figure out. Instead of a traditional 401k, I payed into a Thrift Savings Plan through my federal employment. Some web sites says that withdrawals from TSP count as "income" and some don't, in regards to Social Security. Most web sites recommend that I take a higher monthly TSP payment until I reach full retirement age and take Social Security. This helps me avoid paying taxes because of all the Social Security rules.

But then I discovered that waiting to take Social Security causes a future issue with Medicare payment rates. Reading Level 3 of the below article was a real eye opener.

Making Optimal Social Security Claiming Decisions - A Four Stage Analysis by Daniel Amerman

danielamerman.com

Bottom line...

 

[Frosty]

This was one factor that I am trying to figure out. Instead of a traditional 401k, I payed into a Thrift Savings Plan through my federal employment. Some web sites says that withdrawals from TSP count as "income" and some don't, in regards to Social Security. Most web sites recommend that I take a higher monthly TSP payment until I reach full retirement age and take Social Security. This helps me avoid paying taxes because of all the Social Security rules.

But then I discovered that waiting to take Social Security causes a future issue with Medicare payment rates. Reading Level 3 of the below article was a real eye opener.

Making Optimal Social Security Claiming Decisions - A Four Stage Analysis by Daniel Amerman

danielamerman.com

Bottom line...

View attachment 212644

On one hand what you said, on the other I think I might just keep working and die at 65, sooo much easier!

 

[chipbennett]

I'll play along with the fiction that Social Security will still exist when I reach retirement age, and say that my retirement calculations are based on not drawing on Social Security until I'm 70.

 

[jerrob]

Didn't see this mentioned, but if you are withdrawing from your 401k this will most likely count as income and your social security will be taxed.

If any young guns are reading this thread, the post quoted above is a reason why a Roth IRA can be a good idea under certain circumstances.
Roth IRAs are post income tax funded and have no bearing on social sucurity benefits.

 

[Farmerjon]

Amazing the government keeps telling us how soon SS will end with all of us paying into it, yet no mention of welfare failing and no one pays into that!! (not an original thought of mine, read it somewhere some other time)

 

[Shadow01]

What do you folks that draw before age 65 do for insurance?

I have insurance from my first employer that I retired from. I’ll ride that until 65 if they don’t take it away by then. It’s difficult to set plans and not have them change before you get there.

 

[Hardscrable]

I have insurance from my first employer that I retired from. I’ll ride that until 65 if they don’t take it away by then. It’s difficult to set plans and not have them change before you get there.

I was on my wife’s plan thru her work for 30 years. She didn’t retire until 67 ( I was 66 ). I was always self employed so it was much cheaper thru her.

 

[gregkl]

Okay, it appears some of you have a work around to the insurance issue. If I had to retire before 65(or 67), and my wife stays with the school system, we could utilize her plan.

But it would have to get really bad at work or getting terminated before I would even think about retiring.

 

[KittySlayer]

Keep in mind that retiring (stopping work) can be a different age from when you start drawing Social Security. You just need the funds to finance your lifestyle between the two dates.

 

[tim87tr]

Okay, it appears some of you have a work around to the insurance issue. If I had to retire before 65(or 67), and my wife stays with the school system, we could utilize her plan.

But it would have to get really bad at work or getting terminated before I would even think about retiring.

Everyone is on their own path and decides for themselves when they can retire. The problem I see may be societal or government influenced. The story goes that one needs health insurance, the American dream home, fancy cars (I do like those ), and the list goes on. My outlook the last decade was I was going to find a way to not be stuck in the game and I planned accordingly. My life experience seeing people I care about not retire due to waiting on health insurance coverage influenced me greatly in the Houdini escape plan. I greatly wish they had more time to do things for themselves, travel, see family, etc, and I'm uncertain if not having health insurance would have changed anything. There's workarounds for that also but I think it's all a setup to keep people from retiring to a large degree.

As for SS we'll take it as soon as possible barring any major monetary penalty with the tricky rules and policies for couples. That's been stated repeatedly. I'd done some quick calcs and seems to me one would get approximately the same amount of money up to this actuarial death age of probably around 82, whether one starts at 62 or 67. This business of "you get more later if you wait" seems like some government morbid ploy to trick people into waiting, hoping they die before 82 and save their Ponzi scheme setup.