When Should You Take Your Social Security Benefit?

Just south of ‘Sawmill Creek…..

Hi Attorney Kevin Pritchett here
When Is The Best Age To Take Social Security?
You can collect your Social Security benefit as early as age 62. 

  However, you only get the full 100% of your Social Security benefit when you wait until your Full Retirement Age, which is somewhere between  the ages of 66 and 67.

Full Retirement Agre (FRA)
    Quoting from a ‘Motley Fool’ article on the subject: 
 
   “ If you apply for your benefits at age 62, then your
monthly check will be much smaller than it would
be if you wait until FRA. The Social Security Administration reduces your monthly benefit payment by a fixed percentage for every month you claim earlier than FRA, and those monthly penalties can add up. For example, a person born in 1960 has a full retirement age of 67; if they claim benefits at age 62, they’d get 30% less per month than they would get otherwise.

From that same article….

“The difference between the amount you could collect
in benefits at age 62 and the amount you could collect
if you wait until age 70 to apply for benefits is significant.
Assuming a full retirement age of 67 and a full retirement
age benefit of $1,000, a person who claims at age 62
would only receive $700 per month, while a person who
claims at age 70 would receive $1,240 per month. In this
scenario, claiming at age 70 results in a monthly check
that’s a whopping 77% bigger than the check they’d
receive at age 62.”

Advantages of Collecting At Age 62 and Breakeven 
    The advantage of collecting at age 62 is that well…you can collect!!!  If you wait to collect and you die, then you lose!! Overall. there is a 40% chance a 60 year old will not live to age 80 based on 2015 data.
 
     Along these same lines…if you collect at age 62 the longer you live, the more total benefits you may collect…the point at which you ‘break even. “The breakeven point is different (with certain assumptions)for age 62, 67 and 70.

Other Factors
Of course since we’re dealing with ‘a government benefit…NOTHING IS SIMPLE!!!

   Other considerations:

==spousal benefits
==total income considerations
==what other income/assets you have

   If you’re nearing age 62 and expect to collect Social Security it pays to think very very carefully, consider all the possibilities and make a plan BEFORE you get to the critical age….you only get one shot at this!!!
Remember…..
“Things Don’t Get Better With Neglect…..”

Kevin Pritchett, Esq
Law Office of Kevin Pritchett, Inc.
ironkop@gmail.com
www.KevinPLaw.com
312-505-1957