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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Secret Ways to Boost Your Social Security |
| 2008-06-04 |
| Four legal strategies for adding as much as $12,000 a year to your retirement income. Some retirement decisions are irreversible. But many retirees will be happy to learn that choosing when to start collecting Social Security benefits is not one of them. When John Rothenhoefer, 70, found out that he could increase his Social Security benefits by about $1,000 a month by taking advantage of a do-over strategy, he thought he'd struck gold. As it turns out, he might as well have won a mega lottery. Out of the 32 million retirees who collect Social Security benefits, Rothenhoefer was one of just 71 people this fiscal year to take advantage of an obscure option that lets you halt your current benefits, pay back all you have collected interest-free, and restart your benefits at a new, higher rate based on your current age. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #9 .....lets you halt your current benefits, pay back all you have collected interest-free, and restart your benefits at a new, higher rate based on your current age. "Pay-back and Restart." Sounds pretty good unless.... you die the next month. Mildred might not appreciate waving goodbye to that nestegg. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-06-04 21:47 |
| #8 So they've been stealing money from me all this time that they know I won't get. AND they never let me have even a portion of what they stole to invest for myself. Yeah, that "social" insecurity. Bastards. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-06-04 21:13 |
| #7 Means testing is what they will eventually come around to. People in the financial planning community have been hearing scuttlebutt about it for years now. They'll set the limit and if your estate is worth more than say, $1,000,000 , at time or retirement, then you lose. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-06-04 18:28 |
| #6 True, Bright Pebbles, but savers can afford to go without... and Social Security payments remain fairly meagre. Those who have only that are not going to sign up for Caribbean cruises. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-04 13:07 |
| #5 Means testing punishes savers. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-06-04 12:38 |
| #4 It was only viable when the "retirement age" was equal to the average life expectancy and people either died before collecting any money or shortly after. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-06-04 12:19 |
| #3 Need to means test it. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-06-04 09:12 |
| #2 Or significantly delay when they start receiving benefits -- whether because they can't afford to retire, or because they like the extra income and stimulation working provides. I've been reading stories lately that many baby boomers fall into one or the other category. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-04 08:02 |
| #1 Then again, how many people seriously think that SS will survive the baby boom bubble? The bottom line is that SS was only viable in its original incarnation: as a retirement system for minimum wage employees who had no other retirement. Had it been left as such, it would be very solvent, but it was expanded into an entitlement program for vast numbers of people who should never have been involved paying into it or receiving benefits. Right now, the only way the scam will continue to be the boondoggle it has become is if the vast majority of baby boomers die young. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-04 07:56 |