I will be 56 in a month and while currently FI, I continue to work part time by choice. I have shared before on this site that I have plans for Fat Fire which excludes any dependency on Social Security. I am part of a neighborhood retirement/social club that includes mostly guys from their early to later 60's and I have noticed it is clear Social Security is part of their plan... a leg of stool.
While my plan basically ignores SS, all the talk in my local group had me go run the SS calculator and to my surprise, it shows that if I wait until 70, between my wife and I we could have almost $60K coming our way. This got me looking up the latest on the solvency of SS...
"As a result of changes to Social Security enacted in 1983, benefits are now expected to be payable in full on a timely basis until 2037, when the trust fund reserves are projected to become exhausted. At the point where the reserves are used up, continuing taxes are expected to be enough to pay 76 percent of scheduled benefits." Ssa.gov
So, this sort of prompts a number of questions for people roughly my age and younger...
- Should we expect SS to be there in full for our life time? Will the politics be strong enough to effect SS for years to come?
- Should we take the current solvency at face value? If so, what does that do to your timing/plans to start taking SS?
- If, like me, you did not factor SS in your modeling... should you? And if you do, how will you/should you adjust your spending up until you start taking withdrawals?
There are worst plans in the world... just plan on SS as found money. But, at the same time, if you believe it will be there, you effectively could make an argument to "blow the dough" a little more aggressively up until then.
What say you?
While my plan basically ignores SS, all the talk in my local group had me go run the SS calculator and to my surprise, it shows that if I wait until 70, between my wife and I we could have almost $60K coming our way. This got me looking up the latest on the solvency of SS...
"As a result of changes to Social Security enacted in 1983, benefits are now expected to be payable in full on a timely basis until 2037, when the trust fund reserves are projected to become exhausted. At the point where the reserves are used up, continuing taxes are expected to be enough to pay 76 percent of scheduled benefits." Ssa.gov
So, this sort of prompts a number of questions for people roughly my age and younger...
- Should we expect SS to be there in full for our life time? Will the politics be strong enough to effect SS for years to come?
- Should we take the current solvency at face value? If so, what does that do to your timing/plans to start taking SS?
- If, like me, you did not factor SS in your modeling... should you? And if you do, how will you/should you adjust your spending up until you start taking withdrawals?
There are worst plans in the world... just plan on SS as found money. But, at the same time, if you believe it will be there, you effectively could make an argument to "blow the dough" a little more aggressively up until then.
What say you?