July 13, 2010
Social Security Old Age Benefits: Tips To Help You Maximize Your Social Security Retirement Benefits
As you get closer to retirement, opting when to apply for your Social Security benefits might seem like rolling the dice. There are lots of decisions to make, such as:
What is the most appropriate age to start your Social Security income? When should your wife or husband start taking benefits? What happens to your spouse’s benefits (and yours) when he/she dies? When is it better to collect based on your spouse’s earnings record? Can you collect on your ex-spouse’s benefits?
In case you didn’t have a 100 questions concerning Social Security before, you should at this point! Below are some tips and ideas to help you get the most out of your Social Security retirement benefits:
Optimize Your Social Security Income:
Your retirement benefit is calculated on your highest 35 years of salary so it is critical to get as many “high earning” years in as possible. Consequently, staying with your job even one year longer at a good earning job could make a big difference with your retirement income.
Hold off Getting Your Social Security Income:
Social Security penalizes you for every month you collect your Social Security before you reach your full retirement age, with the highest penalty being 25% if you begin receiving benefits at age 62. While starting your benefits earlier might be luring, those who are patient can improve their Social Security retirement benefits by up to 30% (including inflation adjustments) just by waiting until full retirement age.
Work Part-Time While in Retirement:
While you are limited in how much you are allowed to earn when you’re under full retirement age and collecting Social Security, after you achieve full retirement age you’ll be able to get paid as much income as you wish without your retirement benefits being cut. Another idea would be to take a part-time job whenever you retire and delay collecting Social Security benefits.
Apply for Benefits Based on Your Husband or Wife’s Benefits:
If you are married, it is possible to withdraw Social Security retirement benefits based on your own income, or you may collect half of your spouse’s benefit, whichever is bigger. If you and your spouse aren’t the same age, you will need to do some planning to make certain you get the maximum benefits, but this is definitely a technique to take into consideration if one spouse makes a lot more than the other, as well as if one spouse has been away from the work force for quite some time.
Draw on Your Ex Spouse’s Benefits:
The spousal benefit refers to ex-spouses also. If you were married to your ex-spouse for at least 10 years, and you also aren’t currently married to somebody else, you are able to collect as much as 50% of your ex spouse’s benefits. It’s not necessary to contact your ex-spouse to apply for your benefits; in fact they will probably never know if you don’t let them know, plus it won’t impact their own benefits in any way.
These are just some tactics to help you to increase your Social Security benefits. Receiving your Social Security retirement income can be an extremely difficult decision and may have an effect on the rest of your retirement, so make sure you speak with a professional prior to you making any decisions on your own.
Learn how to get the maximum Social Security retirement benefits at www.socialsecurityretirementincome.com
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