Drawing Social Security early or not?

[Ceedawg]

Actually the SS pyramid is not "going broke".--- It WENT BROKE many years ago.
Everyone and anyone that gets a check from the SS system is getting that money from existing -working- contributors.
(It's not like a pension fund where the funds are expected to be held and cared for.)

If the current SS withholdings -of existing workers/earners- cannot keep up with the demand to meet the obligation to those that are drawing the funds then the taxpayers as a whole will fill in the balance due.

I see the deduction going up to 10% in a few years for that reason. Now 7.5% working. Being self employed (tax) for 40 years @15%

 

[Wojo68]

I think retiring and when to start drawing SS benefits are 2 separate issues. Some people retire but wait to draw SS until they max out. For example, Military, FD and PD retirees usually can retire after 20 years of service.

20 yrs of service doesn’t give you squat around here. Gotta do at least 28. Max out at 32 yrs. I wish we could go at 20! I woulda been gone.

 

[Richard Cranium]

To me, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

 

[themechanic]

I was able to retire from work after 20 years with defined benefit. It's from the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System (OLERS). Every year the state legislature tries to change it to a defined contribution system. So, I'm glad I was able to retire before they changed it.

 

[steve from staten island]

You know all it takes especially in this day and age of the internet were anyone can access verified information is simply reading.
Some still play the political BS. Social Security is a paid in benefit. No illegal collect SS benefits.
A person has to contribute the minimum to collect and that also includes disability benefits as well as survivor benefits.
They pay the minimum they get the minimum. They dont pay into it, they dont get it.
Fraud meaning phony claims for health or work related disabilities is the biggest issue in my opinion. Because of that it has been harder for people with legitimate disabilities to collect SSD.
As far as comments about SS being a pyramid scheme, tell it to the guy who becomes disabled or to the mother of children whose husband dies.
My best friend lost his dad when he was five years old, his mom was left with him and his two year old sister and a mortgage.
They were very poor but SS kept them one step from homelessness.
How many Americans work all there lives and wind up with meager retirement funds, SS and Medicare enables them to live out there days with some semblance of security and dignity.
With out SS people would be starving and living in the streets.
SS and medicare are the two greatest socialist programs ever conceived in this country. Remember that when you receive these benefits

 

[steve from staten island]

I had a workplace accident and had to retired at 51. Was on comp and was denied SS. Hired a lawyer and after almost three years was granted SSD with full retro pay. The judge said he didn't understand how I was denied in the first place. Told me it was becoming standard practice unless you lost a limb or death was eminent.

Id bet those were tough times and im glad for you that your getting your well deserved benefits. I think the younger you are the harder it is to collect unless its the example you use.
My wife was forced to apply by the. insurance company that paid her benefits on a paid into disability policy.
They told her she had to apply or they would terminate her benefit
She was around 59 and diagnosed with Stage 4. She submitted the required documentation and was awarded SSD benefits.
I still say her age and diagnosis was the reason she got it on the first try

 

[ws23jrt]

Hey Steve--you disagreed with my post #74.

I am left hanging about that. You did not follow up. --Maybe you were just saying hi and that you read my post?

 

[steve from staten island]

Hey Steve--you disagreed with my post #74.

I am left hanging about that. You did not follow up. --Maybe you were just saying hi and that you read my post?

I wasn't aware I owed you a explanation just because I disagreed with all/part of your post.
Id also think that if you read all of my posting(s) after yours, that would explain my opinions.
Other than that hope life is treating you well

 

[69a100]

Hey Steve--you disagreed with my post #74.

I am left hanging about that. You did not follow up. --Maybe you were just saying hi and that you read my post?

That's just his way of saying your wrong, weather you are or not! He does that a lot!

 

[Slap Stick]

I started drawing SS at 62-1/2.
This year, for every two dollars you earn over 17k and change they deduct one dollar of ss.
Lets say you earn around 25 k. You will get about 1300/mo for nine months of the year.
I elected to keep working because I need medical insurance. I take the as money and bank it...but not at the credit union. I put it in my bank, aka piggy. Nobody can touch it there. If an emergency comes up I have it.
Once I turn 65 in a bit more than a year I will check on Medicare coverage. If that works I'll just get a part time gig.

 

[cr8crshr]

I started at 62 1/2 and I am now 70. If you amortize it out compared to waiting for any other age to collect, you actually will take home more over your remaining life expectancy than waiting till say 66 or 70. At that point in your life, you mortality has increased and your life expectancy diminished. All the advise is just that...advise only. Take it at 62 and run with it. But as stated above, it is a personal decision only you and you alone can make...cr8crshr/Bill

 

[DeltaV]

I am going to wait until I am 70 to start drawing SS. My relatives lived into their upper 80's and lower 90's. One day they were fine and three days later they were deceased. Good genes for the most part.

 

[themechanic]

I am going to wait until I am 70 to start drawing SS. My relatives lived into their upper 80's and lower 90's. One day they were fine and three days later they were deceased. Good genes for the most part.

Don't bet your life on it. The environment they lived in most of their lives was a whole lot healthier than it is for us.

 

[DeltaV]

Don't bet your life on it. The environment they lived in most of their lives was a whole lot healthier than it is for us.

Radford Arsenal, DuPont, Reynolds Metals, and a roofing materials company. Oh yeah, a great environment, a breath of fresh air, lol. Funny thing, my father lived the longest of all my relatives. All that after free round-trips to Germany in a B-17. Good luck helps me thinks.

 

[Budnicks]

.................Just do what's right for you & your family

you will never go wrong that way

If you paid into it, you're entitled to get some back...

good luck it's still a couple years before I can collect
I'll reevaluate when the time comes

 

[ws23jrt]

I don't think that he was referring to you this time

If not me then who? And further what difference does it make who he warns readers about listening to?--

 

[Budnicks]

If not me then who? And further what difference does it make who he warns readers about listening to?--

seems it was Reported & edited anyway

 

[Rick62]

The only way to know the perfect day to start collecting Social Security is to know the exact date on which you will die.

 

[Hey-O]

I am going to wait until I am 70 to start drawing SS. My relatives lived into their upper 80's and lower 90's. One day they were fine and three days later they were deceased. Good genes for the most part.

Love you like a brother, so I mean this in a nice why, but don't count on it working that way. My wife's cousin was an only child and health freak. Both his mother and father are in there mid 90's and he said the same thing. He quick started taking it for he wife's sake at 69 when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Both his parents were at his funeral. I was never much of a gambler.

 

[YY1]

A friend of mine started working for county government about 3 years before I did.
Even though defined benefit was available, he chose defined contribution.

He now has 26 years in and I have 23.
His account is worth 300K.
Not too terribly difficult to calculate how long that will last depending on what annual distribution you choose.

If I stay until 30 years (I'll be 58), I'll get 36K a year for the rest of my life with a 1.5% COLA.
At that payout, his will last less than 9 years.
He can buy back in to defined benefit for "only" $165,000.

I believe I'll be taking SS as soon as it's available.
My family has a roulette wheel of life expectancy, anywhere for 42 to over 100.

...and before anyone jumps on me for contributing to the government debt...

1- The Florida pension system is one of the best run in the country at 85% self sustaining.

2- I was an IT project manager/supervisor and 3rd level tech support for most of my time, which is about a $90K or more job "in the real world" for an organization of comparable size, and I traded a LOT of that average salary for the retirement system.