Latest / Money In Motion with Klaas Financial / Perfect Timing: Unlocking the Secret of Social Security Benefits

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Perfect Timing: Unlocking the Secret of Social Security Benefits · Money In Motion with Klaas Financial

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And the phone lines they are open for you right now. If you've got
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a question for our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, we would love to
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have you join us. All you gotta do is pick up phone, give
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us a call telph a number to get on the air. Six oh eight
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three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
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We'll get you on the air with CJ. Closs and Malia Quavis.
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Of course, they come to us from Kloss Financial. Their website class financial
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dot com. That's Closs k l aasfinancial dot com. The telephone number for
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the office right here in Madison six oh eight four four two five six three
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seven. No charge for the initial gets know your appointment at Class Financial.
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It will be complimentary. Tube again their number six oh eight four four two
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five six three seven as mentioned, Joining us this morning our CJ. Closs
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and Malia Quavis. CJ, how was your fourth Oh it was great?
0:46
How was your Sean? It was absolutely fantastic. Malia? How about you?
0:51
It was a steamer. It was so hot where I was. They
0:55
remind you of your days in southern California, Milia, actually hotter. You
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know you throwing that humidity and it just is a different, different animal.
1:03
That is that is very very true. Of course, CJ and Maalia.
1:06
They come to us from Class Financial. I mentioned the website cossfinancial dot com.
1:10
If you haven't checked it out recently, head on over there. There's
1:11
a lot of great information about Class Financial how they can help you or if
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you're an employer when it comes to retirement and retirement planning. There's also a
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great feature on the website, the weekly Market Pulse newsletter. You can subscribe
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right at classfinancial dot com. It's a weekly email that comes to your inbox.
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Got a little snapshot of what's been happening in the markets. Also a
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link to the most recent podcast again that available to you at Cossfinancial dot com.
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That's Coss k l aas Financial dot com and they're telephone number six.
1:40
So eight four four two five six three seven. Be talking this week about
1:44
three letters fr A what do they mean? We'll get the details from Cjmalia
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in just a moment before we get rolling with this week's conversation. One of
1:52
the great features also on the program is the Class Quiz QUESTIONALEK. We'll be
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doing one a little bit later. On in today's show, chance for you
1:57
to win a twenty five dollars gift card to Dick Sporting from our friends at
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Coloss Financial. And before we start talking about full retirement age, let's actually
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take a look back at two weeks ago the program. There, I get
2:07
the class quiz question the week and the answer there as well. Yeah.
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So hopefully, as our listeners have listened to our different subjects throughout the years,
2:15
we do touch on some different areas. And two weeks ago we discussed
2:20
about employers, particularly employers of small businesses, and what they can do with
2:24
their four oh one ks to hopefully incentivize their employees. So the question of
2:30
the week two weeks ago was true or false? The two most common forms
2:35
of employer contributions into a four oh one K plan include a non elective three
2:39
percent contribution or a matching formula trure false. Harold of Madison called in first
2:46
with a correct answer that was true. So thanks for listening, Harold,
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listen carefully for today's question and no free. You can also listen back to
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the previous program and programs up at classfinancial dot com. Check out those podcasts
3:00
again. That's a Cossfinancial dot com and today we're going to be talking about
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what it means when it comes to full retirement age and the things we should
3:06
be taking our you know, should we be taking social security at sixty two
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and what are some of those details we need to know? CJ. Yeah,
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this is kind of the million dollar question for people as they get closer
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to retirement, because often social security is this is this concept or almost this
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haze for people, and then as they get closer to the ages that they
3:27
can begin drawing benefits, they start to educate themselves. And that's good,
3:30
but often one of the ways that people educate themselves is by talking to their
3:36
maybe coworker or neighbor about how does this whole social security thing work? And
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often this is where we find there can be some we'll just call it either
3:46
misinformation or lack of full understanding of how soci security works. So many times
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on this show we pause and we talk about soci security. And that's what
3:54
we're going to do today. So, since soci security will likely be an
3:59
important part of your future income, and for some perhaps their only income,
4:03
you should consider this choice carefully. And this choice I'm referencing is when do
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you draw so of course, the question becomes, well, what's what's the
4:14
earliest I can take my benefit? And the answer is, actually, you
4:16
can draw as early as sixty two. But then there's this concept that you
4:21
were just asking about Sean known as the FRA, the full retirement age.
4:27
And according to soci Security, if you are born between nineteen forty three and
4:30
nineteen fifty four, your full retirement age is age sixty six. For those
4:38
born between nineteen fifty five and nineteen fifty nine, your full retirement age is
4:43
sixty six plus some number of months, two months, four months, six
4:46
months, eight months. You get the idea. And if you were born
4:49
after nineteen sixty, I'm raising my hand because I was born after nineteen sixty
4:54
your full retirement age is sixty seven. Now, of course the question becomes,
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what is this full retirement age thing you speak of. Why does that
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age even matter? Well, that is the age at which you can collect
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what Social Security calls one hundred percent of your benefit, or what is known
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as an unreduced benefit. So of course, if you drop before your full
5:16
retirement age, it is going to be some reduced benefit. Now, if
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you do collect early, you'll again you'll get this smaller monthly amount, but
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that makes sense because you're going to be drawing it over a longer period of
5:30
time by definition, because if we think of your death at some age in
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the future, well, goodness, if you start drawing at sixty two and
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you die at whatever it is, ninety, you're going to be drawing longer
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than the other version of yourself that waited to sixty seven, if that makes
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sense. So of course then people start saying, well, what are the
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reduction amounts and what do these amounts look like? And we would encourage you
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to go to SSA dot gov. It's an excellent resource. You can estap
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publish a log in there and find out what your full retirement age is,
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because many of you are saying, well, you know it's for me at
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sixty six in some number of months, but I don't know how many.
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We'll just establish a log into SSA dot gov. You'll be able to see
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your earnings record, you'll be able to run projections, and you'll be able
6:17
to see what that full retirement age is specifically for for you. It's and
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it's interesting you mentioned that website. I know a number of years ago we
6:26
talked about it and I signed up and there's a lot of great information on
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it. Which surprises me is I talk to folks that are just about to
6:34
retire and they're like, I never knew, And that's such a such a
6:38
powerful tool at SSA dot gov. CJ of course, talking this morning with
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CJ. Closs and Malia Quavis, our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial.
6:45
Speaking of websites, their website COSS Financial dot com. That's Coss k l
6:49
aas Financial dot com. A great resource again Class Financial dot com. They're
6:54
telephone number six so eight four four two five six three seven. No charge
6:59
that initial get to know you appointment tech lost Financial. It will be complimentary
7:01
to you again. They're number six eight four four two five sixty three seven.
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And to get on the air this morning's got to call the station six
7:08
oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six h eight three two one
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thirteen ten And CJS, you kind of laid some of those details out.
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Here comes the big question, what's the best time to collect? And I've
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got my pen out yeah for you at sixty four in two months now,
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So that that is the million dollar question, isn't that so okay? So
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let's reassess sixty two is the earliest you can typically draw off of your own
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record. By the way, we are talking about soci security retirement benefits.
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For those who want to know, we are not talking about social security disability.
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We are not talking about survivor benefits or spousal benefits. We are talking
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about drawing off your own retirement benefit. But sixty two is the earliest you
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can draw off your own record. Somewhere between sixty six and sixty seven is
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your FRA full retirement age amount, which is known as the unreduced amount.
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The next question becomes, are there any other ages I should know about relative
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to Social Security? And the answer is yes, there's one other age known
8:01
as age seventy. So between your full retirement age, I'm going to use
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myself. I'm raising my hand. I'm sixty. My full retirement age is
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sixty seven. So for me, if I decide to wait to draw for
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a year after age sixty seven, or I should say for every year I
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choose to delay after sixty seven, that is known as a taking a DRC,
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a delayed retirement credit. For every year I wait. Under current law,
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at least it grows eight percent per year flat guaranteed. And actually when
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I say eight percent per year, it's actually a monthly benefit increase. So
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it's eight percent divided by twelve months, and for every month, you know,
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you're going up by point seventy five percent or whatever that math works out
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to be. So you go, wow, Okay, so we've got age
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sixty two, I've got my full retirement age amount, which is what Social
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Security calls my unreduced amount. And then technically if I wait till after that,
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I get like one hundred and eight percent or one hundred and six or
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one hundred and twenty four percent of my full benefit amount. That's right.
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Okay. So with kind of that in the back of your brain, the
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question becomes when should I collect? And Sean, what do you think our
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response is going to be. I'm gonna guess it depends you got it.
9:18
Sean's been doing the show with us for I don't know a really long time,
9:20
and he knows. Unfortunately, that is the most common answer we give.
9:24
It depends on your situation. Now, we will give you some rules
9:30
of thumb, but for anybody who's listened to our show, we do chuckle
9:33
at rules of thumb. A little bit, because they're beneficial only to the
9:35
extent that you don't apply them to yourself. So don't rely on rules of
9:39
thumb. But we'll give you a couple. Rule of thumb. Number one
9:43
would be, hey, if you're really unhealthy and retired at sixty two,
9:48
and you anticipate dying earlier in life, there could be a benefit of drawing
9:52
at sixty two. If, however, you're still working and plan to continue
9:58
working and earning over twenty thousand dollars a year, you should probably wait until
10:01
at least your full retirement age amount. And if you have unbelievable longevity in
10:07
your genes and you do not need your Social Security benefit, there could be
10:09
a benefit to waiting to age seventy because you'll get the highest amount, and
10:13
if you live long enough, you will get more out of the Social Security
10:16
Trust Fund. But goodness gracious, those are just rules of thumb. If
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you want an answer that actually is meaningful to you and your financial plan,
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then unfortunately, sit down with a financial plan or they can they can help
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work that out for you. By the way, you mentioned that at age
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seventy, what's there's something that there's anything important there that we need to.
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Well, the only thing to be aware of is people go, Okay,
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so sixty two, I've got, you know, full retirement age between sixty
10:39
six and seventy, and I can then wait as long as to age seventy.
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Well, what if I wait to age eighty, Well, delayed retirement
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credits end at age seventy. That's the key here. So those eight percent
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increases between let's again using my full retirement age between sixty seven and seventy,
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Those eight percent drcs end at age seventy, So you're gonna want to start
11:00
to draw your Social Security benefit at seventy at the latest. Fantastic stuff this
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week from CJ. Class and Malia Quavis. They are our retirement planning professionals.
11:09
They come to us from Class Financial. The website classfinancial dot com.
11:11
That's coss k laasfinancial dot com. Great website and great resource to learn more
11:16
about Class Financial. Their telephone number six oh eight four four two five six
11:20
three seven. No charge for that initial get to know your appoinment deck Loss
11:24
Financial. It will be complimentary to you again. Their number six oh eight
11:28
four four two five six three seven the number to join the show this morning,
11:31
six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three
11:35
two one thirteen ten. So how exactly is your social security benefit determined?
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We'll get the details from Malia and take your call. Excuse we'll get those
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from CJ. We'll get your call next as Money in Motion with class Financial
11:46
continues here on thirteen ten, WIBA talking with our retirement planning professionals CJ.
11:54
Closs and Malia Equavis. They of course come to us from COSS Financial the
11:58
website class us Financial dot com. That's k l a A S Financial dot
12:03
com. They're telephone number six o eight four four two five six three seven.
12:07
No charge for the initial get to know your appointment dech laws Financial.
12:11
It will be complimentary to you again their number six oh eight four four two
12:15
five six three seven. Talking this week about social security and CJ. We
12:18
just talked a little bit about full retirement age and obviously everybody's social security is
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different. How then it's like your specific social security benefit? How do they
12:28
figure that out and does it increase what? What's kind of the guidance there
12:35
I've done? Oh yeah, I wasna ik oh, I'm I apologize.
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It's okay. So that's always the question. People are kind of curious what
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what that's going to look like for them, and how what are these credits
12:48
and how did they come to be and it seems kind of nebulous when people
12:52
start thinking about it. So we want to give some definition today. So
12:56
as you have worked in the past and you've paid yours, you are earning
13:01
your Social Security credits throughout the years that you have worked. So just looking
13:07
at in twenty twenty four for some clarity, you will earn one credit for
13:13
every seventeen hundred and thirty dollars in earnings that you make for a year.
13:18
So you can only make a maximum of four credits per year, so it
13:22
doesn't matter if your earnings are, of course are much higher, which most
13:26
people will will have higher earnings than that, but you can only make four
13:31
credits per year. And in order to collect a future Social Security benefit,
13:35
most people need forty credits, which is essentially ten years of work to qualify
13:41
for a benefit. Now, if you stop working before you have enough credits
13:45
to qualify for your benefit, your credits will stay on your record, but
13:50
if you return to work later on, more credits can be added. So
13:52
we often see this in a situation where perhaps one spouse decided to stay home,
14:00
maybe to care for the kids, the other one continue to work,
14:03
and then at some point the other spouse says, you know, I'm ready
14:05
to jump back in there, and they will continue to earn credits added to
14:09
those previous ones they had. If you don't have at least forty credits,
14:16
that doesn't mean you're not currently entitled to retirement benefit if you have. If
14:20
you stop working before you have enough credits to qualify your credits, as I
14:24
said, stay on your record. But what you want to do is go
14:28
to SSA dot gov, the website that we discussed earlier. Read their publication
14:31
how you Earn credits for more clarity on that. And then the question is,
14:37
okay, I've got the credits, so what does that mean in terms
14:39
of my actual benefit? So the Social Security Administration actually uses a calculation based
14:46
on a thirty five year average of your covered wages for your highest years,
14:52
and each of those years those wages are adjusted for inflation before they become averaged.
15:00
So essentially most people have worked more than thirty five years if they started
15:05
when they're aged sixteen, for example, which many people did start working and
15:09
maybe they had some gap years where there were zeros, you know, they
15:13
didn't have any income for whatever reason. So as you continue working, even
15:18
if you didn't make a lot one particular year, perhaps you're in pre retirement,
15:24
those numbers will help cancel out the zeros that would be averaged in.
15:28
So having a robust record of working years will definitely help your benefit. So
15:35
another good question to ask your advisor when you're sitting down deciding is it time
15:39
to retire? Should I work a little bit more? Et cetera, et
15:41
cetera. You are eligible for cost of living benefit increases starting with the year
15:48
you become age sixty two. So this is true even if you don't get
15:52
benefits until your full retirement age, or even age seventy. As CJ discussed,
15:56
cost of living increases to your benefit begins with the year you reach sixty
16:00
two and up to that year you start receiving benefits. A reference point people
16:04
always like to talk about is COLA, the cost of living adjustment they see
16:08
every year for Social Security, and people get really excited. You know,
16:11
a couple of years ago, in twenty twenty three, the cost of living
16:15
was increase was eight point seven percent. Everyone's like, wow, this is
16:19
big. Well, obviously inflation was big too, that correlation there, Whereas
16:26
this year the Social Security benefit was three point two percent increase, and we're
16:30
likely to see something in that that range this year because definitely inflation has been
16:36
reduced. But every October Social Security Administration will announce its changes in terms of
16:41
benefits. And then finally, if you're a government worker with a pension,
16:45
there is a different formula applied to your average indexed monthly earnings and that would
16:51
be call called the wind Windfall Elimination Provision. And so you can again go
16:56
to Social Security, look up their web online and calculator and see how that
17:00
might apply to your specific situation. I wonder if they're getting a spike this
17:04
morning in website visits, because there is so much to know about this stuff.
17:11
As we talk so security this week with our retirement planning professionals from Class
17:15
Financial Malia Quavis and Cjlass the website class financial dot com speaking of going online
17:19
Class financial dot com. That's k l Aasfinancial dot com and the telephon number
17:25
six so eight four four two five six three seven. So how do we
17:30
know, like what's right? What's the right age, and then also that
17:33
break even point when it comes to benefits CJ. What do we need to
17:37
know there? We're going to take it out of the kind of hypothetical high
17:40
level and start getting into some of the numbers, because this idea of break
17:44
even matters, and we'll talk about this here in a moment, But the
17:47
idea of break even is, all right, Well, if if I draw
17:51
it sixty two, it's a lower benefit, but I'm drawing longer if I
17:55
draw my full retirement age, which is, if you're listening closely, for
17:57
all Americans, at some point, we're between sixty six and sixty seven,
18:02
but it depends on when you're born. Of course, that amount is your
18:04
full unreduced amount. And then if I wait to seventy, I get over
18:07
one hundred percent, right, so it's one hundred and eight or one hundred
18:11
and sixteen percent of my benefit, although up to age seventy. And so
18:15
the question becomes, well, what point do these numbers actually break even with
18:19
one another? Right? Because if I draw early, I'm money ahead,
18:22
but it's a lower benefit. And then if I wait to age seventy,
18:26
I'm getting a higher benefit, but I'm you know, many years behind,
18:29
eight years behind. So that's the idea of break even, and we'll we'll
18:33
look at some of those numbers. But you know, this idea of when
18:36
you should draw is is not just about break evens. Unfortunately, it's much
18:41
more complicated than that. We need to look at things like other income sources
18:45
as you enter retirement. And this could include your spouse's income, this could
18:48
include other benefits. And it's difficult to say because we're trying to establish if
18:55
there's any also like potential longevity in your family or need for the income just
19:00
to live comfortably. And you know, for many Americans, for many Americans,
19:06
this is their only sources of income in retirement. It's sad to say,
19:08
but it is. Now. I do just want to remind you all
19:12
here in the United States, we have some great things and we have some
19:17
things that could, you know, empirically, be not so great depending upon
19:21
how you view this. So one of those being like, we do not
19:25
have a social system that is designed to just completely support all of your needs
19:30
when you get to retirement. Repeat that, we have not built a social
19:34
system here in the United States that is designed to just completely take care of
19:37
all of your needs. When you get to retirement. We have built systems
19:41
that are meant to provide a minimum sustenance. Okay, so that would be
19:45
social Security and medicare. Those are meant to provide minimum sustenance. But the
19:51
amount that is put into the Socialecurity Trust Fund for you is only designed to
19:55
replace about thirty five ish percent of your working income. So you get the
20:00
idea that is kind of minimum sustenance in retirement. So therefore you know how
20:07
much or when you should draw, and what other income sources you have available
20:11
if you're married, what other benefits you have. All of these things have
20:15
an impact, not to mention longevity. So now we get into the idea
20:18
of break even because assuming you have other options, besides, I just have
20:25
to draw at sixty two because I have no other options. Assuming you have
20:29
a choice, then this idea of break even in your own longevity matters.
20:33
So here's an example. If your full retirement age is sixty six years and
20:37
two months and you start receiving retirement benefits at age sixty two, you will
20:45
only get seventy four point two percent of the monthly benefit of your full retirement
20:52
age. Right. So again, if my full retirement age is sixty six
20:56
and two months. But I decide to draw early at age sixty two,
21:00
I have it. I'm only getting seventy four point two percent of my full
21:03
retirement age monthly benefit amount. So that's almost you know, we're talking near
21:07
a thirty percent reduction there. But if I wait to sixty five, so
21:11
again, my FRA is sixty six and two months, that's my unreduced amount.
21:15
But now I'm drawing one year and two months early, so fourteen months
21:19
early. If I draw sixty five, you will get ninety two point two
21:23
percent of your benefit. And then here's a fact for you, even though
21:27
we understand that your benefit will go up if you wait. According to Social
21:30
Security, in twenty twenty two, the weighted average age of all newly retired
21:37
workers filing for benefits was age sixty five. This has inch stumped up from
21:42
age sixty two or the past few years. But regardless of all those different
21:47
factors, we're seeing somewhere between like sixty two and sixty five is when most
21:52
people are actually drawing their benefits. I know we've done some shows in the
21:56
past where we've talked kind of about what people anticipated when they actually did retire.
22:00
Those are fascinating programs as well. Folks can listen back at classfinancial dot
22:03
Com. Just check out the podcast there that's class financial dot Com. Tellphen
22:07
number six So eight four four two five six three seven. So CJ,
22:11
let's talk some numbers. What is the break even age then for Social Security?
22:15
Yeah, so there's a bunch of interesting math associated with us, and
22:19
there's a bunch of different calculators even on our website that can help you kind
22:22
of build out this break even. But I'm gonna instead of digging into the
22:26
math, which is actually what's in my show notes everybody, I'm not going
22:29
to dig into the math. I'm gonna instead keep it high level because then
22:32
everybody will be able to hear it and understand it. So there's this misnomer
22:37
out there that Social Security wants you to draw out a particular age. I
22:41
promise you they just don't care. And I will prove to you why,
22:45
because all of the numbers, whether I draw a sixty two, sixty seven
22:51
or seventy, all of the numbers break even right around seventy eight, seventy
22:56
nine, eighty years old. And if you're somebody who deals with life,
23:02
expectancy. Your bells should be going off right now, which is, well,
23:06
that's life expectancy exactly, exactly. So all of the numbers sixty two,
23:11
sixty seven, seventy, they're different numbers. But if you kind of
23:15
build a math model to say when do they break even, they break even
23:19
at the average American's life expectancy. Surprise, surprise, Socialecurity knows what they're
23:25
doing here. Now that's not to say that you should should not care about
23:30
this decision. You can actually game this decision. And what I mean by
23:34
gaming it is, what if you have longevity in your genes and everybody in
23:40
your family lived to ninety five plus and you're expected to live that, Well,
23:44
then you could individually elect based on your life expectancy and potentially benefit from
23:51
that strategic decision. Or conversely, what if you're somebody who is historically everybody
23:56
in your family died at seventy two and you have a chronic illness and you're
24:00
retiring at sixty two, Well, you could game that's that decision and draw
24:04
earlier to make sure that you get as much out of soci Security Trust Fund
24:07
as you can. But again, even if we just focus on health and
24:12
life expectancy very quickly. If you're thinking of this for yourself, it gets
24:17
more complicated because for those who know, if you draw before your full retirement
24:22
age, you're actually limited on how much you can earn before they start taking
24:26
your Social Security benefit away. So, long story short, Unfortunately, this
24:32
is a much more complicated decision and requires a lot more knowledge and education than
24:37
the average American has. And so I just really encourage you. I'm not
24:40
saying you have to talk to a financial advisor, but what I am saying
24:44
is really dig into this to make sure you understand the components of the decision.
24:49
I call it the size of the pool that you're swimming in. Make
24:52
sure you understand the size and the depth of the pool that you're swimming in
24:56
before you decide to jump in the water. Decisions being made, that is
25:00
for sure. As we talk with CJ. Closs and Malia Quavis, they
25:03
are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, the website class financial dot com.
25:07
That's k l a A S Financial dot com. Their telephon number six
25:11
O eight four four two five six three seven. Malia will take it down
25:15
the home stretch next as Money in Motion with Coss Financial continues right here on
25:19
thirteen ten WU I b A talking with our retirement planning professional CJ. Closs
25:26
and Malia Quavis. Of course they come to us from Class Financial, the
25:29
website class financial dot com. That's Class k l A A S Financial dot
25:33
com and they're telephone number six O eight four four two five six three seven.
25:38
Earlier it came up about maybe not having enough credits earned. What if
25:44
what if you're in that situation and you don't qualify for your own Social Security
25:47
benefit? Are you out of luck? Malia or is there is their hope?
25:52
It depends right, So, if you're not entitled to retirement benefits based
25:57
on your own work record, you may still be entitled to benefits on the
26:02
work record of a current or just divorced spouse. So this is important to
26:06
understand. So to qualify for spouse's benefits, you have a couple items you
26:11
need to be able to check off. One, you're at least sixty two
26:14
years of age, or you could be any age. In caring for a
26:18
child who is younger than the age of sixteen and they're disabled, you may
26:22
be entitled to receive benefits on your spouse's record. So understand this though,
26:26
if you start receiving benefits as a spouse at your full retirement age, you're
26:32
going to get fifty percent of the monthly benefit your spouse would receive if their
26:37
benefits started at full retirement age. So if you start early, your benefit's
26:41
going to be permanently reduced if you start receiving those at the earlier age.
26:45
But you do have, you know, a portion of the benefit that you
26:48
could collect, which is really important because I know I've had a lot of
26:52
nervous people in my office over the years thinking that they're going to have nothing,
26:56
and the fact that they actually were married actually gives them a benefit.
27:02
There's also widow or widower benefits. We run into this unfortunately too often.
27:07
A widow or widow work can start collecting their Social Security benefits based either on
27:12
their own earnings record and then later switch to survivor benefits, or they can
27:18
begin with survivor benefits and later switch to benefits based on their own earnings record.
27:22
Can go either way even if they're filing before full retirement age. However,
27:26
we really stop, slow down and look at what makes sense financially.
27:32
Many times we delay that, or we suggest that our clients delay that because
27:37
financially it doesn't make sense for them to start it as early as age sixty,
27:41
which is what we can see happen sometimes. So if you're divorced looking
27:45
at survivor benefits, you have to be at least age sixty, marriage has
27:51
to have lasted ten years, and you didn't remarry before age sixty, you
27:56
might be able to collect your late spouse's benefit. And then divorced people can
28:00
sometimes be entitled to half of an ex social securities benefits. Typically full time
28:04
homemakers, stay at home parents who didn't work thus didn't accrue those benefits on
28:08
their own. Only those who are married more than a decade, as we
28:12
said, can collect the xpouse's benefit. Many times we run into the situation
28:17
where there's been multiple exes, and so people are thinking, well, if
28:21
multiple exes are collecting Social Security benefits, that means my benefit is going to
28:26
get reduced, and that's actually not the case, so you want to speak
28:30
to Social Security. These things get very complicated and understanding when they might write
28:36
age for you based on collection of your xpouse's benefit makes sense for you,
28:42
and then Malia just as far as timeline applying for soci Security, When do
28:47
you want to do that? Yeah, So the general rule is you can
28:51
apply up to four months to Social Security before you want your retirement benefits to
28:56
start. So for example, if you're going to turn sixty two to say
29:00
April second of next year, you could start your benefits as early as April,
29:04
and you want to apply by December. So keep that in mind.
29:08
Social Security needs a little time to get the get the machine working for you,
29:12
so plan ahead. Yes, yes, it's a and I know we've
29:17
talked about in the past. You mentioned once you get the ball rolling,
29:18
it runs, it runs smoothly, but that initial setup you definitely want to
29:22
get on time with it. And of course, as we talk with ever
29:25
retirement planning professionals Mallia Quavis and cjck Loss, they come to us from Class
29:27
Financial, the website colssfinancial dot com that's coss k l Aasfinancial dot com and
29:33
their telephone number six oh eight four four two five six three seven. I
29:37
want to hold on to that telephon number because it's time now for the class
29:38
quiz. Question of the week works like this. In just a moment,
29:41
I'll ask you the class Quiz Question of the week. You then have thirty
29:44
minutes from today's program to call the Class Financial Office right here in Madison telephone
29:48
number six oh eight four four two five, six three seven. If you
29:51
are the first call correct answer to win this week's prize, which is say
29:53
twenty five dollars gift card to Dick Sporting Goods. This week's Class Quiz question
29:59
the week is this, According to Social Security, if you were born after
30:03
the year nineteen sixty, what do they consider your full retirement age FRA to
30:07
B is it sixty five or sixty seven? Telephone number six so eight four
30:11
four two five six three seven. First car with correct answer when that twenty
30:15
five dollars gift card to Dick Sporting Goods. Don't forget as well. That's
30:18
Class Financial Office right here in Madison. Cjmalia, It's always great chatting with
30:23
you guys. Enjoy this beautiful day. Thanks. Doctor Marty K. Comes
30:26
your way next here on thirteen ten WIBA Marty Career