Basic Social Security question

[Dtail]

By 2035, I will be 6ft Under, Pushing Up Daisies, so WTF do I care?

You will only be around 80 y.o. IIRC, so you never know.

 

[DawgMan]

I had this same question a while ago. I ran the calculator plugging in $0 income starting now (age 55) and interestingly, it gave me a lower benefit at 70 by $270/mo ($3702/mo vs. 3972/mo) as opposed to continuing to work until 67 with some reasonable level of income. While I have never underwritten SS in my plan due to lack of faith in how solvent it will be once I turn 70 (maybe 75% of benefit is more realistic?), I suppose it's better than a sharp stick in the eye if something is there, especially if I bump it 50% for my non-working DW!

 

[meleana]

Short answer is yes.

 

[pb4uski]

Follow up re: Social Security Retirement Estimator.
When I click on how they make the estimate, one of the things it says is that your actual amount may differ, due to annual cost-of-living increases.

So.... let's say my estimate is $3,000/month and I am 61 years old, and COLA will be 2%/year for the next 9 years (until I start taking SS at 70.) My assumption is that the best estimate of my monthly benefit at age 70 is $3,000/month + about 20% of $3,000, allowing for the additional 2%/year for 9 years, compounded.

Thus the best estimate for me when 2029 actually arrives would be $3,600/month. Is that how this works?

Close.... it would be $3,000 * (1+2%)^9 or $3,585... assuming that your benefits statement says that your age 70 benefit is $3,000 and COLA adj is 2% annually.

 

[NotYourAverageJones]

Follow up re: Social Security Retirement Estimator.
When I click on how they make the estimate, one of the things it says is that your actual amount may differ, due to annual cost-of-living increases.

So.... let's say my estimate is $3,000/month and I am 61 years old, and COLA will be 2%/year for the next 9 years (until I start taking SS at 70.) My assumption is that the best estimate of my monthly benefit at age 70 is $3,000/month + about 20% of $3,000, allowing for the additional 2%/year for 9 years, compounded.

Thus the best estimate for me when 2029 actually arrives would be $3,600/month. Is that how this works?

I took all of the estimates we got from using SS.gov benefits estimator tool and plugged them into Mike Pipers: https://opensocialsecurity.com/about/ calculator. Gave us a lot of useful insight into how much we both will get and at what ages we should take it to maximize the benefits. It also allow you to estimate a few different scenarios, if their advice doesn't work for you. As always, garbage in garbage out. So make sure you are estimating the same benefits. i.e. the same $ amount either in today's or future dollars.

Also, we were given this link for a online calculator by our former FA to use as a reference as we get closer to retirement. It costs about $40 for a 1 year access, but apparently it gives you way more options and ability to run many different scenarios. Just a thought.

https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/

 

[Teacher Terry]

With a large number of seniors living on just SS I doubt that they will cut it. Since mine is only 377 and my husband’s will only be about 600 it wouldn’t matter to us.