Yep.
It’s interesting. When I turned 66 (my FRA) I called to file and suspend, and the woman I spoke with said there was no need for me to do so since neither I nor DH planned to claim a benefit at that time.
By this argument, even more unfair is that you and the 80 grander pay the same for a gallon of milk or gas. So fair would be everyone pays the same % of their wages for all goods and services?
Also everyone pays the 1.45% medicare tax. There is no cap although if you make a lot of money you have to pay an additional tax… That doesn’t seem fair to me . The high income earner isn’t going to use medicare more than the low one. Basically life isn’t going to be fair to everyone all of the time.
@Dadof3 : That is a ridiculous argument that isn’t even worthy of being called a straw man. Purchasing commodities, paying rent, etc., has nothing to do with the proper allocation of the burden of paying for a state-mandate service.
For the question previously about widows (or widowers) -benefits are unchanged. You can take your spouse’s benefit as early as 60, although it is not the full amount. If you wait you get the full amount at your FRA, 66 in my case. Because your spouse is deceased, the amount at your FRA does not keep increasing until 70. Then you can switch to your own at 70, if your own SS is larger. Or you can continue on your spouse’s SS the rest of your life. Of course if you are still working, the amount is reduced by the 15+k threshold amount until your FRA.
Services or “burdens” like food and housing are far more vital requirements than a retirement plan. Using your argument, logically it would make more sense to give everyone a medicaid card, and if it’s determined the “fair” share for food should be 20%, that amount is lopped off everyone’s paycheck…
Back to your original argument that it “doesn’t seem fair” that you pay a smaller percentage of your total wages, there’s a way to make you feel better about it. You can find out what your fair share should be and write a check to the IRS.
@Dadof3 : You have an amazing talent for misunderstanding or twisting arguments. This “discussion” has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread. I apologize to all for having the audacity to suggest that I thought it would be fair if I (and people like me) paid a bit more into Social Security. I decline to participate further.
@AboutTheSame - raising the income cap can solve some of the problem, but something like 90% of all earned income is already taxed by FICA.
The tax rate will have to go up or benefits have to be cut.
Personally I feel like the rates are high enough. The maximum tax collected in a year has increased by almost 4x since I entered the work force.
Social Security is not supposed to be your only means of support in retirement. Yet so many people do nothing to prepare for their retirement and expect the government to take care of them.
When the trust fund runs dry, revenues will only pay around 75% of promised benefits. That means 1/3 more money needs to be found somewhere, or benefits cut 25%, or some combination. I don’t want it squeezed from my kids.
I do not think I can afford to collect SS after my full retirement age, but I do not think I need to start collecting it as early as 62 either.
When do you plan to start collecting your SS? I think I will likely start collecting it at either 64 yo or 65 yo (and therefore collect a reduced amount.) If I plan to wipe out most of my retirement account before, say, 70, I could definitely afford it. But I do not want to. This is because the SS I will be entitled to can be changed by the politicians any time, while the money in my own retirement is more secure (except for its inflation risk), relatively speaking.
Are all people here so “rich” that they can afford to postpone it to 70 yo before collecting the SS?
VeryHappy, you have brought up the fact that none of us should follow the SS workers advice. The SS agency makes it clear that they are not there to advise. Also, many are just not that aware of the"best" for us if it out of the norm.
Guessing you could have educated the person you were talking with on that call.
H will file and suspend soon and we will go from there.
I have said for the last 2 years that all was going to change. Yet even I am surprised that SS has give no lead time.
Some of us plan to keep on working. I know that I can’t count on being physically able to work until age 70… but I honestly don’t know what I would do with myself without work.
I do admit that last week’s retirement plan was a lot better. That is, last week I would have told you that I planned to file for spousal benefits on my ex-husband’s SS at at age 66, and then at age 70 opt to take my own maxed-out benefits. If I had been born 5 weeks earlier that would still be my plan; but unfortunately for me that’s now ~$40,000 I’ll never see.
So now it is work as long as I am able, and hope that I can manage until age 70. The other big part of my retirement plan is to have my house paid off when I hit retirement age – it will certainly help if I don’t have a monthly mortgage payment to make.
This! I happened to be near a SS office a little less than 90 days before my 62 birthday when I wanted to start collecting. I took my number and waited my turn, just figured I would do it in person.
Well…my “person” told me I was not within the window for filing…and sent me away.
I went home that afternoon, and filed online.
The person was WRONG.
What’s even scarier is that they are taking about raising the retirement age for people under 55… So eventually it will be 70. That is nuts. While some people are in good health and can work that long there are others that have enough heath problems just getting to 66 hard.
^ It’s a way of reducing benefits that doesn’t immediately sound like it’s about reducing benefits. So it is deemed more palatable than coming out and saying “we are cutting benefits by 8%”.
Social Security either has to raise taxes or cut benefits, neither of which are politically palatable. Politically, it is about which constituency group ends up being catered to more at the expense of which other constituency group.
In any case, it would be worth advising younger people to make retirement plans that do not depend on receiving any Social Security benefits at all, so anything that they may end up with is just a bonus.
Social Security is not supposed to be your only means of support in retirement. Yet so many people do nothing to prepare for their retirement and expect the government to take care of them.>>>>>>>>>>>>
One thing we drilled into our sons’ minds…save something, anything every single paycheck towards retirement. Take advantage of employer’s 401Ks, etc. All three have listened, thank goodness.
My mother worked her whole life and died just before she was eligible for Medicare. She had taken maybe one year of SS benefits. My Dad had retired and had to get another job to have health insurance for my Mom.
I plan on taking benefits as soon as I can since I want at least something back from everything that has been given in!
Just a reminder to look at this for your age and specifics. Pages back, things got confused when referring to folks not yet 62 versus those who will be by the date.
“Because your spouse is deceased, the amount at your FRA does not keep increasing until 70.”
CNN, 2014: The good news is that deeming does not apply to survivor benefits. So (you) can file for a widow’s benefit right away and not trigger a claim for her own retirement benefit. Because it’s likely her retirement benefit will be higher at age 70 than her widow’s benefit, she should plan on taking the widow’s benefit as soon as possible. At age 70, she can switch to her retirement benefit .
From SSA: For example, a woman could take a reduced Widow’s benefit at 60 and then switch to her own retirement benefit when she reaches full retirement age. Or she could continue to get delayed credits on her own record past full retirement age and switch to her own benefit at age 70.
** that latter isn’t from SSA, but another site.
I am still debating on how best to handle taking SS.
This particular wrinkle could cause a divorced woman under the age of 62 to harbor some very unkind thoughts about her ex. (Or the other way around, though statistically it will be women more likely getting the short end of the stick)