So guess what H got in the mail today!? Remember he called only to make an appointment on 11-23. He was on the phone waiting for 20 minutes and talked (was grilled for 20 minutes) JUST to make an appointment–which was not available.
Today he received 2 letter from SS.
1 refers to his call and informs him that he is not eligible for SSI as he did not want to file a claim during the
phone call. The scary sentence is “If we decided that you are eligible, you could lose benefits if you file after February 5, 2016”.
2 is a two page letter telling him how to file and how to call to make an appointment (!!!)
I guess in some ways I’m fortunate that I don’t turn 62 until after the start of the year. I might be cut out of thousands of dollars of potential SS benefits… but a least I don’t have to deal with filing any paperwork for at least another 4 years.
There was an article in the NY Times (I think yesterday) that rehashed all the changes pretty well. Good article, but I laughed at this line: "Figuring out the best strategy is difficult because few retirees know how long they will live. "
Wife and I are both 62 this year so we will not be able to file and suspend, but we will be able to file a restricted application. I think it is a little ironic that with the old plan with file and suspend we would have received a check for, let’s say, $1000 per month from age 66 to 70. With that option not available, our new plan will most likely be wife filing at 66 and me receiving spouse benefit, or roughly $2000 per month from age 66 to 70, so the changes in SS law will “force” us to receive twice as much in benefits from age 66 to 70. (We will of course have a lower monthly benefit from age 70 on under the new strategy).
That’s how I felt when I ran maximizemysocialsecurity. The answer I got was if you live until 90, you should do x, if not, y. All other factors were minuscule. I already knew what I should do if I live long. $40 I paid for the program pinned the age, 90 is the deciding age. I now need a program to tell me if I will live until 90.
It says I’m going to live to be 100. It also gives me suggestions that, it alleges, would add five more years on to my life. No, thanks – I think 100 is long enough. I’ll keep eating red meat and drinking coffee.
For the longevity test, I gave the email address blahblah@blah.com. It was already taken. So I tried blahblahblah@blah.com. Also already taken. Hmm, I guess other people might not want to give real addresses either.
It said I would live to 95, which sounds right. My mom’s 91, and her sisters and aunts lived to their 90s too. So did my paternal grandmother.
I am only going to live to 94. I think that is long enough unless 94 is the new 60.
I admit when I wasn’t sure how to respond, I chose the more optimistic answer. I think there are studies that optimists live longer as long as they don’t try to fly by jumping off tall buildings and they skip french fries.
I guess I won’t take ss until I am 70. I wasn’t planning to anyway so I guess I wasted 5 minutes of my life answering the questions and another 3 minutes writing this post.
Did you know that only 2% of filers wait until age 70? Don’t have the source handy - might have been in the NYT article linked a few posts up. That surprised me. Thought were people cannot make it financially until 70 without SS and/or focus on starting benefits early to make sure they get something before death.
We are not going to make it to the SS office today after all.
(I spent the entire night taking care of a 7 weeks old who keeps waking because of gas, but that is another post).
But that is OK as I realized that we have no idea what information we SHOULD give them and what they might ask
that has nothing to do with “file and suspend”.
I have posted a question on Bogglehead (?) and H will send a question to Max.my SS
Anyone have solid info? I cannot find anything such as: bring this, bring that info.
One would think [hope] that all the relevant information [ages, earning history, etc.] is in their computer system. My on line account accurately reflects what was is in the annual mailings I used to get. Maybe bring birth & marriage certificates just to prove those facts?
OK, the quiz says I’m going to live until 101 but I don’t believe it. Also the mail fakeemail@mailinator.com was already taken.
I don’t think we need to know how long we are going to live. I think that unless we have a chronic disease or condition that we know limits our time, we’ve got to plan as if we are going to live a very long time. Simple rationale: if I die early, I might have lost some potential SS benefits, but I won’t care because I’ll be dead. But if I live a long time and my monthly SS is not enough to make ends meet… then I’ll be suffering for all of those extra years.
That doesn’t mean that it makes sense to exhaust resources or suffer trying to hold out until age 70. The other big question is what other resources does a person have & whether we are able to continue to work to earn income - or maintain other sources of income – through age 70.
If you are well fixed enough that you aren’t going to ever be reliant on SS – for example, if you own a bunch of rental property which produces enough income to meet all your needs and more - then maybe it’s a tax question. Maybe in that case it makes sense to take the SS sooner before you hit the age where withdrawals from retirement accounts become mandatory, because maybe you are paying a huge chunk of your SS back in taxes anyway.
But the bottom line is that the person who holds off on the SS until age 70 and then dies at 75 is dead either way. The person who signs on at age 62 and then is alive but impoverished at age 88 has a lot more to worry about.