We were invited to a Wells Fargo retirement seminar last night entitled, “Securing Your Retirement, Transforming Social Security into a Winning Retirement Stragety”.
Carleton Pace, our Wells Fargo advisor, suggested we attend and I am very glad we did. The free food and drink was welcome, but the seminar was outstanding. It presented an overview of the options provided by Social Security. Most people think you can take early retirement at age 62, full retirement at 66 (varies depending on birthdata), or wait until 70 when benefits max out. That is all correct.
What most people do not know about: 1. survivor benefits, 2. spousal benefits, 3. filing for SS and suspending benefits, 4. how the benefit is calculated, 5. benefit reductions.
I learned that my wife can apply for social security now and suspend benefits for a few years until I retire and we begin our adventure. For those two years her benefits increase by 8% annually (standard for over 66). When I turn 66 in a few years, I will file for SS and suspend my benefits, Ellen can then collect Spousal benefits based on my SS benefits (which would be 50% at that time). Because we both are at full retirement, any money we earn does not reduce our SS benefit.
Unless and until we need additional funds, we can hold our benefits suspended until we max out at age 70. Alternately and recognizing that women outlive men in most cases, ellen could take her SS benefits at any time while I maximize mine (waiting until 70) to provide her a somewhat larger survivor benefit.
The retirement seminar was presented by BlackRock and sponsored by Wells Fargo. If you are approaching retirement, I recommend seeking out an investment planner to create a retirement plan and understand social security. It will be there for you (and it would be solvent if our politicians had not raided the fund repeatedly over the years).
Disclaimer: I do not work for BlackRock or Wells Fargo and I have no interest in the companies aside from my own personal dealings with them. Their investment stragety is far more conservative than my own; Carleton quoted a 5% annual return year over year. In my mutual funds investments, I more typically see 8% to as high as 60% annually.
Subscribe to Morningstar (they have a web presence), pay for the premium service for a month or two, and research mutual funds. The number of specialized funds is astounding. Morningstar gives you a search tool to narrow your investment target. (again: I do not work for or represent Morningstar, they simply provide optimal information to investors).
Ron