Understand how to build and protect the biggest asset you own: Social Security. On this episode of “Your Money, Your Wealth,” Joe and Big Al will answer some of the most frequently raised questions about Social Security. When are you eligible for your benefits? When should you take it? What’s the breakeven point? Find out the answers to these questions and discover how you could collect much more in social security benefits than you ever thought possible.
1:33 “Ten billion dollars are left on the table, maybe even a little more than that, because you’re not claiming your benefits correctly”
2:52 “Today we’re going to get into who qualifies for [Social Security] and when to receive the benefits because you have several choices and it will affect your income for life”
3:23 “If people can understand how to claim social security properly, they’d be in a lot better shape in retirement”
4:29 “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”
10:48 “Every year that you wait your benefits are higher; you can wait all the way up to age 70”
11:08 “The person who has the largest benefit should push theirs out the longest they can, because you’re protecting the other spouse
11:40 “You have to put 40 quarters into the system, or ten years. Or, you must be married to someone for 40 quarters or ten years”
12:05 “You don’t necessarily need to be married to that individual, you can still claim on that benefit for a spousal benefit”
14:01 “You get an extended credit of 8% per year, each year that you wait. It’s called a delayed credit. So if you do not take it at 62, you get an 8% increase until you’ve reached full retirement age”
18:02 “By comparing different dates on when you can actually take the benefit, that’s when your breakeven point is. Typically it’s late 70’s to early 80’s”
18:18 “If you don’t need the money and you’re in reasonably good health, then you want to wait as long as you can”
19:55 “For those of you who are still working, don’t even try to claim your Social Security benefits at age 62”
20:54 “What the spousal benefit is, is one half of your spouse’s primary insurance amount as long as it’s claimed at full retirement age”
