Latest / Money In Motion with Klaas Financial / A Deep Dive into Social Security
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: And our phone lines are open for you if you
- 0:03Speaker 1: have questions for our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial.
- 0:07Speaker 1: All I got to just pick up phone dial in
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- 0:10Speaker 1: SOH eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh
- 0:13Speaker 1: eight three two one thirteen ten. We'll get you on
- 0:16Speaker 1: the air with CJ. Coss and Eric Schwartz. Great show ahead.
- 0:19Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking this week about social Security benefits.
- 0:23Speaker 1: And I know this is one that always gets a
- 0:25Speaker 1: lot of questions, a lot of calls, a lot of conversation.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Love to hear from you this morning again, tell phe
- 0:29Speaker 1: number to get on air six SOH eight three two
- 0:31Speaker 1: one thirteen ten. That's six SOH eight three two one
- 0:35Speaker 1: thirteen ten. You can learn more about Class Financial on
- 0:37Speaker 1: their website Class financial dot com. That's Coss k l
- 0:41Speaker 1: Aasfinancial dot com. Teleph number for the office right here
- 0:45Speaker 1: in Madison. Six O eight four four two five six
- 0:48Speaker 1: three seven. No charge for that initial get to know
- 0:50Speaker 1: you appointment tech Class Financial. It will be complementary to
- 0:53Speaker 1: you again their number six O eight four four two
- 0:55Speaker 1: five six three seven cold out of the number as well,
- 0:57Speaker 1: coming up a little bit later on the show, we're
- 0:59Speaker 1: gonna have the coss Quiz question the week your chance
- 1:00Speaker 1: to win a fantastic prize from our friends at Class Financial.
- 1:04Speaker 1: This week's prize a twenty five dollars gift card to
- 1:07Speaker 1: pet Smart. So listen closely oftentimes just about every time,
- 1:10Speaker 1: to be completely fair, the question and answer just about
- 1:14Speaker 1: every show come up, so you get a little leg
- 1:16Speaker 1: up on everybody else by paying close attention. It definitely
- 1:19Speaker 1: benefits you a number of ways to pay a close
- 1:21Speaker 1: attention to the program. Speaking of the closs Quiz question week,
- 1:25Speaker 1: before we get rolling on this week's conversation, let's actually
- 1:28Speaker 1: take a look back at last week's show and get
- 1:31Speaker 1: the question and answer there as well. Eric, first off,
- 1:34Speaker 1: welcome to the program. Let's take a look back actually
- 1:36Speaker 1: at last week's show and get the question and answer
- 1:39Speaker 1: there as well.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Sean, we had a great show last week.
- 1:43Speaker 2: In our congratulations first of all to our winner, who
- 1:46Speaker 2: was Jillian from Madison and Jillian. The question Jillian got
- 1:51Speaker 2: right was if you are fifty five years old in
- 1:54Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, how much can you contribute into your
- 1:57Speaker 2: retirement plan at work? So the choices were twenty five
- 2:00Speaker 2: thousand or thirty one thousand in Jillian shows the correct answer.
- 2:04Speaker 3: With your thirty one thousand dollars in twenty twenty five.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Congratulations Jillian, great work there, and again we'll have a
- 2:10Speaker 1: chance for you to win again this week with the
- 2:13Speaker 1: Class Quiz Quash Week. Pay close attention to the program
- 2:16Speaker 1: smatch the full lines. They're open if you've got a question,
- 2:18Speaker 1: love to have you join us. Six oh eight three
- 2:20Speaker 1: two one thirteen ten. That's six soh eight three two
- 2:22Speaker 1: one thirteen ten. Mentioned earlier the website colss financial dot
- 2:26Speaker 1: com that's coss klaas financial dot com did get a
- 2:29Speaker 1: chance chance to mention all the great features. You can
- 2:31Speaker 1: learn more about the team at Costs Financial. You can
- 2:33Speaker 1: learn about their separate divisions. You can also sign up
- 2:35Speaker 1: for the weekly market Paul's newsletter all on the website
- 2:38Speaker 1: class financial dot com. So today we're gonna be talking
- 2:41Speaker 1: about Social Security benefits in the various ages folks may
- 2:45Speaker 1: become eligible to receive certain benefits and CJ. What do
- 2:48Speaker 1: we need to know there?
- 2:50Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 2:51Speaker 4: Well, first off, I hope you can hear me.
- 2:52Speaker 1: Okay, so great, we're having some trouble there, sound fantastic.
- 2:56Speaker 4: Okay, great, Yeah.
- 2:57Speaker 5: So to begin our discussion, I want to outline the
- 3:00Speaker 5: various types of social security benefits someone could become eligible
- 3:04Speaker 5: to receive throughout their lifetime. Now, for those who have
- 3:08Speaker 5: listened to our show for a while, I actually want
- 3:10Speaker 5: to encourage you listen closely. Today's show is going to
- 3:13Speaker 5: go quite a bit deeper into elements of social security
- 3:17Speaker 5: I don't know that we've ever talked about on this show.
- 3:19Speaker 5: So for those who are interested in sociecurity benefits, whether
- 3:23Speaker 5: you're drawing it now or drawing in the future, this
- 3:25Speaker 5: is going to give you some additional insights into the
- 3:27Speaker 5: various types of benefits that soci security provides, along with
- 3:30Speaker 5: different calculation.
- 3:32Speaker 4: So hang tight.
- 3:33Speaker 5: But the various types of sociecurity benefits include the following
- 3:38Speaker 5: number one, retirement benefits. This is what most people think
- 3:42Speaker 5: of when they think of soci security. They think of
- 3:45Speaker 5: retirement benefits, but believe it or not, Outside of retirement benefits,
- 3:48Speaker 5: there are the following other benefits, disability insurance benefits, survivor benefits,
- 3:56Speaker 5: family benefits, and supplemental Social Security income benefits. Now, according
- 4:03Speaker 5: to SOCI Security Administration, here are quick definitions of each
- 4:06Speaker 5: type of benefit, someone could become eligible to receive throughout
- 4:09Speaker 5: their lifetime. Because you actually think about it, you could
- 4:13Speaker 5: become eligible to receive any one of those five different
- 4:16Speaker 5: types of soci security benefits I just mentioned at different
- 4:19Speaker 5: points throughout your life. So let's define them first. The
- 4:24Speaker 5: soci security retirement benefit is a monthly check that replaces
- 4:27Speaker 5: part of your income when you reduce your hours or
- 4:30Speaker 5: stop working altogether. It may not replace all your income,
- 4:34Speaker 5: so it's best to identify other ways to pay for
- 4:37Speaker 5: your monthly expenses as you age. Again, everybody, these are
- 4:41Speaker 5: actually definitions right off the Soci Security website. So again,
- 4:45Speaker 5: that was just a definition for Social Security retirement benefits.
- 4:50Speaker 5: Now here's a definition for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits
- 4:54Speaker 5: also known as SSDI. Soci Security Disability benefits provides more
- 5:00Speaker 5: monthly payments to people who have a disability that stops
- 5:04Speaker 5: or limits their ability to work. The third type of
- 5:09Speaker 5: benefit is the Social Security survivor benefit, and that provides
- 5:13Speaker 5: monthly payments to eligible family members of people who worked
- 5:16Speaker 5: and paid Social Security taxes before they died. So again,
- 5:21Speaker 5: survivor benefit would be say I have a parent who
- 5:24Speaker 5: died and it could be eligible for different family members.
- 5:29Speaker 5: The fourth type of soci security benefit is Social Security
- 5:32Speaker 5: Family Benefit. This provides monthly payments to certain family members
- 5:36Speaker 5: of people who are eligible for retirement or disability benefits.
- 5:43Speaker 5: And finally, Social Security Supplemental Security Income Benefit known as
- 5:49Speaker 5: s SI. So remember the other one was ssd I.
- 5:52Speaker 5: This is known as s SI provides monthly payments to
- 5:56Speaker 5: people with disabilities and adults who have little or no
- 6:00Speaker 5: income or resources. So listen, everybody, here's the example of SSI.
- 6:06Speaker 5: What happens when somebody is born with a disability? Right,
- 6:09Speaker 5: how do they function in the world. Maybe that disability
- 6:12Speaker 5: doesn't allow them to work a normal job, but maybe
- 6:15Speaker 5: they can still be in society and add add meaningful
- 6:19Speaker 5: value and love and connection.
- 6:21Speaker 4: But how do they live if.
- 6:22Speaker 5: There's no you know, no employer that's going to pay
- 6:25Speaker 5: them enough for sustenance? And the answer is often SSI.
- 6:29Speaker 5: So here's what I want everybody to realize. With those
- 6:32Speaker 5: five definitions in place, social security is fantastic for a
- 6:37Speaker 5: society like ours to have some sort of a system
- 6:41Speaker 5: in place that takes care of either the least of
- 6:44Speaker 5: those in our society or provides a minimum sustenance, income
- 6:48Speaker 5: and retirement. I believe we should all be proud of
- 6:52Speaker 5: the fact that we have a social security benefit. Now
- 6:55Speaker 5: I'm not saying this is not a political statement, right,
- 6:57Speaker 5: That's not the point of this.
- 6:59Speaker 4: It is rather just to say that as.
- 7:01Speaker 5: A as a developed society like ours, it is nice
- 7:06Speaker 5: to know that they're that there are these kind of
- 7:08Speaker 5: like five fallbacks for people as the age or become unhealthy,
- 7:12Speaker 5: or become disabled or born with a disability. Is nice
- 7:16Speaker 5: to know that we we have developed the system.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Talking this morning with CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz, they
- 7:21Speaker 1: are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, the website
- 7:25Speaker 1: class financial dot com. That's Claus k l a as
- 7:28Speaker 1: financial dot com and their telephone number six o eight
- 7:30Speaker 1: four four two five six three seven. No charge for
- 7:34Speaker 1: that initial get to know you appointment tech Class Financial,
- 7:36Speaker 1: It will be complimentary to you again their number six
- 7:38Speaker 1: oh eight four four two five six three seven. And CJ.
- 7:41Speaker 1: You alluded to and as folks kind of heard you
- 7:44Speaker 1: discuss those those five different different types of benefits, folks
- 7:49Speaker 1: could experience multiple, if not all of these in their lifetime.
- 7:53Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. So a couple things on this.
- 7:56Speaker 5: So we do understand that social Security can get a
- 7:58Speaker 5: bad reputation due to its funding problems or how politicians.
- 8:01Speaker 4: Use it for political leverage.
- 8:03Speaker 5: I mean, listen, just just watch a couple of the
- 8:05Speaker 5: more recent debates in political land, and it's like social
- 8:09Speaker 5: Security is a big topic. However, as I mentioned, at
- 8:12Speaker 5: its core, social security is a modern financial marvel and
- 8:16Speaker 5: it positively impacts the lives of tens of millions of
- 8:20Speaker 5: Americans and it keeps countless more out of extreme poverty.
- 8:25Speaker 5: That's the key, right, it keeps countless more out of
- 8:28Speaker 5: extreme poverty. Now, I'm not saying there's not abuse in
- 8:31Speaker 5: the system. I'm not saying that politicians haven't managed it well,
- 8:34Speaker 5: that it doesn't have funding problems. Those are all true statements,
- 8:37Speaker 5: and I'm not disagreeing with that. But at its core,
- 8:41Speaker 5: what a blessing to our American society that we have
- 8:44Speaker 5: found a way to try to provide minimum sustenments. Now,
- 8:48Speaker 5: with all of this being said, today, we will be
- 8:50Speaker 5: primarily focusing on social Security, retirement benefits and family benefits
- 8:56Speaker 5: for the remainder of our show. And the reason is
- 8:59Speaker 5: because these two categories, again, retirement benefits and family benefits
- 9:03Speaker 5: account for about sixty five percent of all Social Security
- 9:07Speaker 5: benefit recipients. So that is where the remainder of our
- 9:10Speaker 5: show will be focused, and.
- 9:11Speaker 1: We're going to talk a little bit about I think
- 9:13Speaker 1: one of the big questions every time we talk SOS
- 9:15Speaker 1: security is the when, and we'll find out from Cjan Eric.
- 9:18Speaker 1: We will do that and so much more. As Money
- 9:20Speaker 1: Motion with Coss Financial continues, don't forget about the website
- 9:23Speaker 1: class Financial dot com. That's coss k l aa S
- 9:26Speaker 1: Financial dot com. There telphon number six oh eight four
- 9:29Speaker 1: four two five six three seven, and the phone lines
- 9:31Speaker 1: are open here at station. If you have questions for
- 9:33Speaker 1: Eric and CJ, I'll can just pick up phone give
- 9:35Speaker 1: us a ring six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
- 9:37Speaker 1: That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. More
- 9:40Speaker 1: of Money in Motion with Coss Financial is next right
- 9:43Speaker 1: here on thirteen ten. WIBA talking this week Social Security
- 9:47Speaker 1: with our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, joined by CJ.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz. Again, they are our retirement planning
- 9:54Speaker 1: professionals from Class Financial. Hope you've had a chance check
- 9:56Speaker 1: out the website Coss Financial dot com. That's coss k
- 9:59Speaker 1: l a as financial dot com. Maybe when you get
- 10:02Speaker 1: into the office this morning, take a peek over there.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Another cool thing to online at the website. If you
- 10:06Speaker 1: miss part today's program or you want to listen back,
- 10:08Speaker 1: or even better subscribe to the podcast. You can do
- 10:10Speaker 1: all of that online at clossfinancial dot com. That's colss
- 10:14Speaker 1: k l aa S financial dot com and their telephone
- 10:17Speaker 1: number six so eight four four two five six three seven.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Talking this week about social security and CJ laid out
- 10:24Speaker 1: the different types of Social Security benefits there are, and
- 10:27Speaker 1: we're going to kind of break down in a great
- 10:29Speaker 1: rundown from CGEN those various types of social Security benefits.
- 10:33Speaker 1: But I've got to think for most folks, Eric, they
- 10:36Speaker 1: just want to know at what age should I be
- 10:38Speaker 1: taking and starting my own retirement benefit.
- 10:42Speaker 2: Yeah, Sean, That's that's pretty much what everybody wants to know.
- 10:45Speaker 2: That's the most common question we get from from our clients,
- 10:48Speaker 2: from the general public. And I mean, unfortunately my answer
- 10:52Speaker 2: is going to be a little bit unsatisfying for listeners.
- 10:55Speaker 2: It is accurate, though it depends on a lot of
- 10:57Speaker 2: factors that are unique.
- 10:59Speaker 3: To individuals and their families.
- 11:01Speaker 2: So before we jump into kind of you know how
- 11:04Speaker 2: timing and when you take your.
- 11:05Speaker 3: Benefits effects the amount you get.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Let's just talk a little bit first here about where
- 11:11Speaker 2: our Social Security retirement benefits come from.
- 11:14Speaker 3: Right.
- 11:14Speaker 2: CJ was talking about this you know robust program that
- 11:17Speaker 2: we have we have in our society here, but what
- 11:20Speaker 2: actually funds Social Security? So the benefits that are received
- 11:25Speaker 2: are actually funded through payroll taxes. So we look at
- 11:30Speaker 2: our paycheck and we see the fight attack on the
- 11:33Speaker 2: deductions area, A portion of that is going to Social Security.
- 11:38Speaker 3: So six point two percent.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Of your wages to go to the Social Security Administration.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Your employer also kicks in six point two percent of
- 11:49Speaker 2: your wages, so that the total of twelve point four
- 11:52Speaker 2: and that is applied to your wages up to what's
- 11:56Speaker 2: called the Social Security wage base or the cap on earning.
- 12:00Speaker 2: So the wage based cap for twenty twenty five is
- 12:02Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy six thousand, one hundred dollars per individual.
- 12:07Speaker 2: So this means that what if an individual is a
- 12:10Speaker 2: higher earner and they earn more than one hundred and
- 12:12Speaker 2: seventy six thousand, one hundred dollars, there will no longer
- 12:15Speaker 2: be Social Security payroll tax taken out over and above there.
- 12:20Speaker 2: So we often hear folks that we talk to who
- 12:23Speaker 2: maybe higher earners, say, oh, towards the end of the year,
- 12:25Speaker 2: I actually get a I get a little bump in
- 12:27Speaker 2: my paycheck, I get a little raise. And what they're
- 12:30Speaker 2: saying there is, you know, their take home is more
- 12:32Speaker 2: because that that's six point two percent is actually no
- 12:36Speaker 2: longer being being taken out. Now that changes when they
- 12:38Speaker 2: flip into the new year, obviously, and they start, you know,
- 12:43Speaker 2: we start the clock over. But the funding mechanism for
- 12:47Speaker 2: the Social Security system.
- 12:49Speaker 3: Is is payroll taxes.
- 12:51Speaker 2: But more to your question here, let's let's talk a
- 12:54Speaker 2: little bit about how soon people can take their benefits
- 12:58Speaker 2: and what is the right age. Unfortunately it's a little
- 13:01Speaker 2: bit more of an art than a science, but let's
- 13:03Speaker 2: talk about a couple of the things here that we
- 13:05Speaker 2: think about. So the first thing is we want to
- 13:08Speaker 2: remember there's a difference between when you can first take
- 13:11Speaker 2: your Social Security benefits, so when you are first eligible
- 13:14Speaker 2: to get some level of benefit.
- 13:17Speaker 3: And when you receive your full.
- 13:19Speaker 2: Social Security benefit, which is at your full retirement age. Okay,
- 13:23Speaker 2: so let's begin with a little bit of a background
- 13:26Speaker 2: here on what is meant by full retirement age so
- 13:29Speaker 2: accordinate to social security. If you were born between nineteen
- 13:32Speaker 2: forty three and nineteen fifty four, your full retirement age.
- 13:36Speaker 3: Is sixty six, okay.
- 13:38Speaker 2: But for those born between nineteen fifty five and nineteen
- 13:41Speaker 2: fifty nine.
- 13:42Speaker 3: Your full retirement's a little more complicated.
- 13:44Speaker 2: It's sixty six plus some number of months based on
- 13:48Speaker 2: when you were born. And then for everybody after nineteen
- 13:52Speaker 2: sixty that's all age sixty seven. So your full retirement age,
- 13:57Speaker 2: which is also known as your FRA, and you'll hear
- 14:00Speaker 2: us refer to that here throughout the show, that's the
- 14:03Speaker 2: agent which you become eligible to receive your full unreduced
- 14:07Speaker 2: Social Security benefit. Okay, So notice I said you're full
- 14:11Speaker 2: and unreduced social Security benefit. You are actually able to
- 14:16Speaker 2: collect as early as age sixty two, and a lot
- 14:19Speaker 2: of people do.
- 14:20Speaker 3: You're able to collect as early as sety two. You
- 14:23Speaker 3: can also wait until you're seventy. We'll talk about that
- 14:26Speaker 3: more in.
- 14:26Speaker 2: A moment, but you know, really between sixty two and
- 14:30Speaker 2: seventy you can collect anywhere in there, you know, kind
- 14:33Speaker 2: of down to the I think whole a lot of times,
- 14:36Speaker 2: think okay, I can take it at sixty two, maybe
- 14:38Speaker 2: sixty five and my full retirement age. Not true.
- 14:42Speaker 3: You can take it any month in between there, and.
- 14:45Speaker 2: Social Security is actually going to you know, pro rate
- 14:48Speaker 2: your benefit so to speak.
- 14:50Speaker 3: If let's say you take it at sixty two.
- 14:51Speaker 2: And six months, okay, so you'll get a larger benefit
- 14:55Speaker 2: than at sixty two, not quite as much as if
- 14:57Speaker 2: you wait until you wear your sixty Let's talk to
- 15:00Speaker 2: here a little bit about how much you actually received
- 15:04Speaker 2: as a benefit. This is a really really difficult calculation
- 15:09Speaker 2: and that try to recreate it on our own.
- 15:12Speaker 3: And it can be done, but it takes a long time.
- 15:15Speaker 2: We actually have a great resource available to us at
- 15:19Speaker 2: SSA dot gov, So anybody can go to SSA dot
- 15:22Speaker 2: gov and.
- 15:24Speaker 3: Create a profile for yourself.
- 15:26Speaker 2: You can see your earnings history, you can get an
- 15:29Speaker 2: idea of what your actual benefits.
- 15:31Speaker 3: May be based on the age at which you start.
- 15:34Speaker 2: It's a really really great tool, So encourage all listeners
- 15:37Speaker 2: to go out there and create a profile on SSA
- 15:41Speaker 2: dot gov so that you can you can get an
- 15:44Speaker 2: idea of what your benefit might be. But talking about
- 15:48Speaker 2: the best time to collect okay, so again depends on
- 15:51Speaker 2: your situation. In most cases, it is generally advisable. You said,
- 15:56Speaker 2: generally advisable to wait at least until you've reached your
- 16:00Speaker 2: full retirement age to start collecting Social Security because the
- 16:04Speaker 2: monthly benefit is so much higher. Okay, So, if you
- 16:06Speaker 2: were born in nineteen fifty five and your full retirement
- 16:10Speaker 2: age is sixty six and two months, that is the
- 16:13Speaker 2: age at which you are able to collect your full
- 16:17Speaker 2: unreduced benefit. Now, what if you wait beyond your full
- 16:21Speaker 2: retirement age, because we do have.
- 16:22Speaker 3: People who do this.
- 16:23Speaker 2: Maybe they're still working, they don't need income, or they're
- 16:27Speaker 2: just you know, it's part of their retirement income strategy
- 16:30Speaker 2: to push Social Security off until seventy. Okay, So the
- 16:35Speaker 2: Social Security benefits are increased if you wait after your
- 16:38Speaker 2: full retirement age any number of years up until seventy,
- 16:43Speaker 2: and depending on your data birth, you are getting what
- 16:46Speaker 2: are called delayed retirement credits, and that can allow your
- 16:50Speaker 2: benefit to increase up to eight percent per year until
- 16:54Speaker 2: you actually start taking benefits. Now, once you hit seventy,
- 16:56Speaker 2: there's no more increases. So most people should not wait
- 17:01Speaker 2: beyond seventy to take their Social Security benefits. But even
- 17:06Speaker 2: if it means using some of you the income that
- 17:08Speaker 2: you've saved in your retirement account. For example, it can
- 17:12Speaker 2: still be worth it to put off that Social Security
- 17:16Speaker 2: until seventy. It's because you're getting a risk free eight
- 17:19Speaker 2: percent annual benefit increase. Now at Class Financial, we have
- 17:24Speaker 2: an excellent investment management team here. Great, they did great work,
- 17:29Speaker 2: but they will tell you that to have a guaranteed
- 17:32Speaker 2: eight percent rate of recurry that is really, really really
- 17:35Speaker 2: hard to beat. Okay, So pushing it off till seventy
- 17:39Speaker 2: can be really really valuable if you have the assets
- 17:42Speaker 2: to create income in between there and last thing Sean
- 17:46Speaker 2: here before we go to the next question. Is I
- 17:51Speaker 2: mentioned this earlier, but you don't when you start taking
- 17:54Speaker 2: your Social Security benefits, you don't have to do it
- 17:57Speaker 2: like on your birthday each year. Depending on how old
- 18:02Speaker 2: you are, social Security either gives you a five ninths
- 18:05Speaker 2: of one percent or a five to twelfths of one
- 18:07Speaker 2: percent increase for each month that you wait.
- 18:10Speaker 3: Okay, so you are getting credit for that. And I
- 18:14Speaker 3: just want to underline here there's almost no reason to.
- 18:17Speaker 2: Not pull your retirement benefits once you've reached age seventy
- 18:19Speaker 2: because you're not getting any more of those to layed
- 18:21Speaker 2: retirement credits.
- 18:22Speaker 1: Really important information there. Eric Schwartz and CJ. Closs out
- 18:25Speaker 1: retirement planning professionals from Class Financial online Class Financial dot com.
- 18:29Speaker 1: That's Coss k l aas Financial dot com. So CJ,
- 18:33Speaker 1: how is this your specific soci Security benefit? How is
- 18:36Speaker 1: that determined? And does that increase what's kind of the
- 18:40Speaker 1: understanding there?
- 18:42Speaker 4: Yeah, good question.
- 18:43Speaker 5: First, you need to have enough credits to even qualify
- 18:47Speaker 5: to receive Social Security benefits. So for our listeners who
- 18:51Speaker 5: listen quite often, up till now, we've talked about a
- 18:54Speaker 5: couple of things you maybe haven't heard on social security.
- 18:56Speaker 5: But here's where we're going to get into some fun
- 18:58Speaker 5: these last two sections. We're going to talk about these
- 19:01Speaker 5: calculations and it's it's quite interesting, so stick with us. So,
- 19:05Speaker 5: as you work and pay taxes, you earn Social Security
- 19:08Speaker 5: that are credits.
- 19:09Speaker 4: They're known as credits.
- 19:10Speaker 5: In twenty twenty five, you earn one credit for each
- 19:12Speaker 5: one eight and ten dollars in earnings, up to a
- 19:15Speaker 5: maximum of four credits per year. The amount of money
- 19:19Speaker 5: needed to earn one credit usually goes up every year,
- 19:22Speaker 5: by the way, but most people need forty credits or
- 19:25Speaker 5: ten years of work to qualify for their own retirement benefit. Now,
- 19:30Speaker 5: notice I emphasize the word their own retirement benefit.
- 19:35Speaker 4: Harken back at the beginning of.
- 19:36Speaker 5: The show, we talked about there's actually five different benefits
- 19:39Speaker 5: that soci Security can pay. We're honing in on a
- 19:41Speaker 5: retirement benefits, and now I'm honing it even further on
- 19:45Speaker 5: your own retirement benefit. You need at least forty credits
- 19:48Speaker 5: are about ten years worth of earnings to even qualify
- 19:52Speaker 5: for your own retirement benefit. Now, if you do not
- 19:55Speaker 5: have at least forty credits, you are not currently entitled
- 19:58Speaker 5: to a retirement benefit. Stop working before you have enough
- 20:01Speaker 5: credits to qualify for benefits.
- 20:03Speaker 4: Your credits will stay on your record.
- 20:05Speaker 5: If you then return to work later, more credits will
- 20:08Speaker 5: be added. So again, you can go to the SSA
- 20:10Speaker 5: dot gov website and read their publication how you Earn
- 20:13Speaker 5: Credits for more information. Now, assuming you have enough credits,
- 20:17Speaker 5: your Social Security uses a calculation based on your highest
- 20:21Speaker 5: thirty five year inflation adjusted average of covered wages.
- 20:27Speaker 4: Let's dig a little deeper on this. Now, this is
- 20:29Speaker 4: where it gets fun.
- 20:30Speaker 5: Every American begins with one hundred and forty credits or
- 20:34Speaker 5: thirty five years worth of zeros in their Social Security
- 20:38Speaker 5: retirement benefit calculator. Okay, so again, if they're going to
- 20:43Speaker 5: use thirty five years worth of inflation adjusted earnings or
- 20:47Speaker 5: one hundred and forty credits, that's just thirty five times four,
- 20:50Speaker 5: Then what do I begin with the answer is one
- 20:52Speaker 5: hundred and forty zeros. And as individuals earn money and
- 20:56Speaker 5: paid wages into Social Security, those zeros start getting replaced
- 20:59Speaker 5: by wage is that are inflation adjusted to create a
- 21:03Speaker 5: present value purchasing.
- 21:05Speaker 4: Power for dollar for those dollars.
- 21:08Speaker 5: For purposes of determining the highest inflation adjusted figures over
- 21:13Speaker 5: the thirty five year working career. So some people will
- 21:16Speaker 5: say to us, Hey, I've worked for thirty years, but
- 21:19Speaker 5: I decided to kind of like semi retire, and now
- 21:21Speaker 5: my last final five years are going to be lower,
- 21:24Speaker 5: and I've heard that's going to hurt my benefit. And
- 21:27Speaker 5: Eric and I go, no, You've still got five years
- 21:29Speaker 5: worth of zeros to fill in, right, one dollar is
- 21:32Speaker 5: more than zero. Now, people then will say, but I've
- 21:36Speaker 5: worked thirty five years and now at the end of
- 21:38Speaker 5: my retirement benefit, now I'm going to potentially have lower income. Well,
- 21:44Speaker 5: you've already filled in the thirty five. Now interestingly enough,
- 21:48Speaker 5: I will just tell you, guys, social Security has to
- 21:51Speaker 5: project your benefit. So sometimes at the very end, if
- 21:55Speaker 5: you have less years that are filling in zeros that
- 21:57Speaker 5: are less than what Social Security is anticipated you to have,
- 22:02Speaker 5: then yes, their projection would be wrong. So listen, we're
- 22:06Speaker 5: really getting down into the weeds now on how they
- 22:08Speaker 5: project your benefit. What I would encourage you to do
- 22:11Speaker 5: is that if you're going to have what i'll call
- 22:14Speaker 5: inconsistent future income as you get closer to retirement, or
- 22:18Speaker 5: lower than expected income for your final five years of work,
- 22:21Speaker 5: I would just sit down with a good qualified advisor
- 22:24Speaker 5: or somebody soci security specialist to say, hey, can you
- 22:26Speaker 5: run a custom calculation instead of me just relying on
- 22:30Speaker 5: the default provisions of the Social Security projection, can we
- 22:32Speaker 5: run a custom now. Consequently, if someone works less than
- 22:36Speaker 5: thirty five years or one hundred and forty credits of
- 22:38Speaker 5: Social Security covered wages over their lifetime, then as I mentioned,
- 22:42Speaker 5: they will still have those zeros. They work more than
- 22:45Speaker 5: thirty five or one hundred and forty one hundred and
- 22:47Speaker 5: forty credits of Social Security, then they will simply remove
- 22:51Speaker 5: the lowest inflation adjusted dollars within that formula. So everybody,
- 22:56Speaker 5: when I say inflation adjusted dollars, here's the problem.
- 23:00Speaker 4: You don't think.
- 23:01Speaker 5: Our brains are not taught to think in inflation adjusted dollars.
- 23:04Speaker 5: So often we'll say, well, when I, you know, first
- 23:07Speaker 5: started working, I only made fifteen thousand dollars and I
- 23:10Speaker 5: had to walk uphill barefoot. You know the whole story, right,
- 23:14Speaker 5: Here's the problem. That fifteen thousand dollars forty years ago
- 23:18Speaker 5: is the equivalent of seventy thousand dollars now, right, and
- 23:22Speaker 5: so Social Security knows that, and the inflation adjusts those
- 23:26Speaker 5: prior earnings to bring it forward. So when someone wants
- 23:30Speaker 5: to draw retirement benefits, here's where it gets fun. A
- 23:34Speaker 5: calculation is performed to create what's called an average indexed
- 23:39Speaker 5: monthly earnings known as AIM for short, that's a new point.
- 23:43Speaker 5: Your inflation adjusted earnings from your highest thirty five years
- 23:48Speaker 5: are added together, and then the total is divided by
- 23:52Speaker 5: four hundred and twenty that's the number of months in
- 23:54Speaker 5: the thirty five years to get your AIM. A formula
- 24:00Speaker 5: LA is then applied to your AIM to calculate your
- 24:04Speaker 5: primary insurance amount, also known as your PIA, or the
- 24:09Speaker 5: amount you would receive at your full retirement age. The
- 24:13Speaker 5: formula applied to your aim to your average indexed monthly
- 24:17Speaker 5: earnings to create your PIA primary insurance amount is as follows.
- 24:24Speaker 5: You get ninety percent of the first one two hundred
- 24:28Speaker 5: and twenty six dollars of your aim, You get thirty
- 24:31Speaker 5: two percent of the amount over one two hundred and
- 24:34Speaker 5: twenty six up to seven thy three hundred and ninety
- 24:38Speaker 5: one dollars of your aim, and you only get fifteen
- 24:41Speaker 5: percent of any amounts over seven three hundred and ninety
- 24:44Speaker 5: one dollars of your aim. Listen, your head should be
- 24:47Speaker 5: spinning right.
- 24:48Speaker 4: Now, should go what what what?
- 24:50Speaker 2: What? What?
- 24:51Speaker 4: What? What's happening here?
- 24:52Speaker 5: These are known as social security bend points. Boy, we're
- 24:56Speaker 5: getting into the weeds. These bend points. You need to
- 24:59Speaker 5: know social care already is what a social program. It
- 25:04Speaker 5: is designed to provide a backstop, a backstop socially. Therefore,
- 25:10Speaker 5: the calculation provides the largest benefits to the lowest aim
- 25:16Speaker 5: calculations aka the lowest income earners. It provides a lower
- 25:20Speaker 5: benefit to the highest income earners because when you run
- 25:24Speaker 5: that aim calculation, they then apply the ninety thirty two fifteen,
- 25:28Speaker 5: And as you can already see, your top dollars are
- 25:30Speaker 5: only getting a fifteen percent return on them when it
- 25:32Speaker 5: comes to that aim calculation, your first dollars were getting
- 25:35Speaker 5: a ninety percent, right. So what you need to know
- 25:39Speaker 5: is that while this is complicated, you just need to
- 25:41Speaker 5: understand Social Security was designed to be a social program
- 25:45Speaker 5: that provides a backstop to people. Therefore, do not think
- 25:49Speaker 5: that you are getting a linear benefit replacement up to
- 25:54Speaker 5: that up to that income cap we were talking about
- 25:56Speaker 5: that Eric was talking about earlier, You're not. If you
- 25:59Speaker 5: were hitting those income caps and paying in all that
- 26:01Speaker 5: Social Security, the amount of money you get back in
- 26:05Speaker 5: retirement is much lower than if you had earned just
- 26:08Speaker 5: fifty thousand dollars per year. So I know this is
- 26:11Speaker 5: getting really complicated. I don't want to freak people out
- 26:14Speaker 5: on this, but I would just really encourage you to
- 26:17Speaker 5: understand this aim calculation, and just for a reference point
- 26:22Speaker 5: so people understand one other element. There's also known as
- 26:25Speaker 5: a cost of living adjustments. So people often confuse this.
- 26:28Speaker 5: They say, guys, I heard that you said my Social
- 26:30Speaker 5: Security benefit if I wait, can grow by seven or
- 26:32Speaker 5: eight percent a year that's good. That's good. But then
- 26:35Speaker 5: one of my friends just said that Social Security grew
- 26:37Speaker 5: by two point five.
- 26:38Speaker 4: Percent, So like you, what's going on here?
- 26:41Speaker 5: Well, listen, if you're not drawing your benefit, your benefit
- 26:45Speaker 5: can grow for delayed withdrawal, but if you are already drawing,
- 26:51Speaker 5: then they want to try to keep your purchasing power
- 26:54Speaker 5: up with inflation. And so even after you've drawn, there
- 26:58Speaker 5: will be annual inflation adjusts months if there is inflation.
- 27:03Speaker 4: So boil boy, my goodness.
- 27:05Speaker 5: I'm sure everybody's heads are spinning in the you know,
- 27:07Speaker 5: spinning around, but.
- 27:08Speaker 4: Hopefully this is helpful. You can reach out to us
- 27:10Speaker 4: with any questions ye.
- 27:11Speaker 1: Have, Bendpoint and Aim. I don't think we've touched on either.
- 27:14Speaker 1: It's very fascinating stuff. This week, as always, talk with CJ.
- 27:16Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz, our retirement planning professionals from class
- 27:19Speaker 1: financial website COSS Financial dot com. That's Coss k l
- 27:22Speaker 1: a A S Financial dot com. We'll take it down
- 27:24Speaker 1: the home stretch next as Money in Motion continues right
- 27:26Speaker 1: here on thirteen ten WIBA talking with CJ. Closs and
- 27:29Speaker 1: Eric Schwartz. They are our retirement planning professionals. From class
- 27:32Speaker 1: Financial Online Cossfinancial dot com and they're telephone number six.
- 27:36Speaker 1: So eight four four two five six three seven just
- 27:38Speaker 1: moments away from the class quiz question week Before we
- 27:40Speaker 1: get to that, though, real quick, we've got a good
- 27:43Speaker 1: question involving figuring out the best age and this is
- 27:46Speaker 1: one of those areas too. I know that a lot
- 27:49Speaker 1: of people wonder, and there's a little bit more that
- 27:50Speaker 1: goes into it. So how can you kind of figure
- 27:52Speaker 1: out the best age to start your benefits? And if
- 27:54Speaker 1: you start collecting earlier, what kind of reduction are we
- 27:57Speaker 1: then looking at there?
- 28:00Speaker 2: Great question, John, But first I have to blame you
- 28:02Speaker 2: for the fact that we're talking about ben points and
- 28:04Speaker 2: aims today because you made the mistake of telling CJ
- 28:07Speaker 2: how much you've learned from the show.
- 28:08Speaker 3: So we have the.
- 28:11Speaker 4: Exactly Thank you. It's not my fault.
- 28:17Speaker 2: But let's let's get to the answer to your question here.
- 28:19Speaker 2: So if figuring out when when to start collecting your benefits,
- 28:24Speaker 2: you know what I'm going to say, it depends it's
- 28:26Speaker 2: ingrained in me.
- 28:27Speaker 3: I can't I can't help it.
- 28:28Speaker 2: But what are some of the things we want to
- 28:30Speaker 2: consider when we're thinking about when to start benefits, so
- 28:33Speaker 2: you know things like your income sources. When you retire,
- 28:36Speaker 2: you have a pension, are you going to be working
- 28:38Speaker 2: part time? Would you receive spousal Social Security benefits? And
- 28:44Speaker 2: then at the same time, we want to think about
- 28:45Speaker 2: things like do you still have debt? Do you have
- 28:47Speaker 2: a mortgage and auto loan that you're paying off? So
- 28:51Speaker 2: these are some really important topics when we're we're thinking
- 28:54Speaker 2: about when to start benefits. But we also have to
- 28:56Speaker 2: think about life expectancy, right because security is a benefit
- 29:01Speaker 2: that play that pays while you are alive, but it
- 29:04Speaker 2: obviously ends at depth, you know, different from like a
- 29:07Speaker 2: pension for example, that may have some sort of joint
- 29:11Speaker 2: life benefit.
- 29:12Speaker 3: So none of us knows how long we're going to live.
- 29:15Speaker 2: Obviously, if we did, we could we could make this
- 29:18Speaker 2: social security calculation pretty exact. That's where it becomes a
- 29:23Speaker 2: little bit more of an art than a science. Like
- 29:25Speaker 2: I said earlier, a lot of people, you know, say
- 29:28Speaker 2: they have a If somebody has a health issue, they
- 29:31Speaker 2: may say, I'm going to start earlier because I don't
- 29:33Speaker 2: think I'm going to be living long enough to make
- 29:37Speaker 2: up what I what I left behind by by waiting
- 29:41Speaker 2: and other people may have longevity, longevity in their family
- 29:43Speaker 2: and say, hey, I'm going to wait till seventy get
- 29:46Speaker 2: the largest benefit, and you know, that's how I'm going
- 29:48Speaker 2: to get the largest benefit out of Social Security. But
- 29:51Speaker 2: regardless of when you decide to take it, let's just
- 29:55Speaker 2: look really quickly here at you know what kind of
- 29:57Speaker 2: reduction you get for taking it early. So let's say
- 30:00Speaker 2: that your full retirement age is sixty six.
- 30:03Speaker 3: In two months.
- 30:04Speaker 2: So you're in that kind of odd ten year stretch
- 30:08Speaker 2: where where it's sixty six in some months. In this case,
- 30:10Speaker 2: it's sixty six and two months. That's your full retirement age.
- 30:14Speaker 2: If you draw at sixty two, you're going to get
- 30:17Speaker 2: about seventy four point two percent of your monthly benefit.
- 30:21Speaker 2: So you're losing, you know, a little over twenty five percent.
- 30:25Speaker 2: If you waited until you were sixty five, you receive
- 30:29Speaker 2: around ninety a little more than ninety two percent of
- 30:32Speaker 2: your full benefit. Okay, so these are the really tough calculation.
- 30:36Speaker 2: It's not we're not going to get exact. But that's
- 30:38Speaker 2: where again your access on SSA dot gov is going
- 30:42Speaker 2: to be really really.
- 30:43Speaker 1: Helpful, great great stuff this week, and you mentioned that website,
- 30:47Speaker 1: and I know there's a little bit of information to there,
- 30:49Speaker 1: Eric that you wanted to add.
- 30:51Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the last last piece here. I even though
- 30:55Speaker 2: we know that benefits go up the longer we wait.
- 30:59Speaker 2: Social Secure any data from a couple of years ago
- 31:01Speaker 2: tells us that the average age that people start benefits
- 31:05Speaker 2: is sixty five, which is not all that surprising. This
- 31:09Speaker 2: generally when people are getting on Medicare and dealing with
- 31:14Speaker 2: the Social Security administration anyway, so they tend to get
- 31:17Speaker 2: started them.
- 31:18Speaker 1: Talking this morning with Eric Schwartz and CJ. Closs, our
- 31:21Speaker 1: retirement funding professionals from Class Financial website class Financial dot Com.
- 31:24Speaker 1: There telephone number six oh eight four four two five,
- 31:27Speaker 1: six three seven. Want to hold on to that telephone umber,
- 31:29Speaker 1: because it's time not for the class quiz question in
- 31:30Speaker 1: the week. It works like this just a moment, I'll
- 31:32Speaker 1: ask you the class quiz question the week. You will
- 31:34Speaker 1: then have thirty minutes from the today's program to call
- 31:36Speaker 1: the Class Financial office right here in Madison at six
- 31:38Speaker 1: oh eight four four two five six three seven. If
- 31:41Speaker 1: you are the first call correct answer when this week's prize,
- 31:43Speaker 1: which is a twenty five dollars gift card to pet Smart.
- 31:46Speaker 1: This week's Class Quiz question week is this true or false?
- 31:49Speaker 1: Your full retirement age, known as your FRA, is the
- 31:53Speaker 1: age at which you become eligible to receive your full
- 31:56Speaker 1: unreduced Social Security retirement benefit. True or false? Telphone number
- 32:01Speaker 1: six O eight four four two five six three seven. Also,
- 32:04Speaker 1: let's cross financial office right here in Madison in their
- 32:06Speaker 1: website class financial dot com. CJ. Eric, It's always great
- 32:10Speaker 1: chatting you guys.
- 32:10Speaker 4: Have a great day, Thanks Sean.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Thanks take care guys. Doctor Greer joins us in sixty
- 32:15Speaker 1: seconds here on thirteen ten w I b I