Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University, joins the show to discuss three rules to live by when claiming Social Security , as well as key assumptions to be aware of if you are under the age of 60. Check out his book, Get What’s Yours to read more about social security benefits.
0:43 “What you don’t want to do is take your benefits immediately because two things bad happen to you; first, you get a permanently lower retirement benefit, and secondly you can wipe out your other benefits that you collect”
1:12 “Three rules for how to maximize your Social Security benefits: to be patient and to take advantage of these higher benefits, to understand all the benefits you have available to you—it’s more than just your retirement benefit, and the third rule is to strategize over when to take what—time your benefits”
1:43 “The strategy for if you’re getting more than one benefit is to take one benefit early, let the other one grow, and then start taking it”
2:16 “If you’re under 60, there’s an assumption that in the future your benefits will not be adjusted for inflation because there will not be any inflation”
3:21 “If I’ve already claimed my benefit, is there anything I can do to unwind any of it?”
3:29 “Anyone who is under 70 and is collecting retirement benefits can fix that mistake by suspending their benefit if they’re between full retirement age and 70”
