Our education initiative, Delay & Gain, made its way around many states this summer. We wanted to reach as many people as possible to help them with one of the most important decisions they’ll ever make – retirement.
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After wading through a stack of scholarly studies about older Americans and debt, my read is that the researchers are plenty worried.
They’ve found that owing money is pushing people in their 60s and beyond to delay retirement, postpone filing for Social Security (so their eventual benefits will be higher) and add stress to their lives.
Ohio State University’s Donald Haurin, Cäzilla Loibl and Stephanie Moulton just released an especially fascinating paper on the relationship between debt and financial stress for older Americans. In it, they described what they found to be a hierarchy of debt, stress-wise.
Credit card debt, they noted, is the most stressful type, with the strongest impact on older adults’ working longer and delaying filing for Social Security. Stress resulting from a $1 increase in credit card debt, they said, is the equivalent of stress due to a $14 to $20 increase in mortgage debt.
via Forbes.
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Our education initiative, Delay & Gain, helps you with one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make: retirement.
Delayed claiming past the early retirement age of 62 results in bigger monthly benefit checks for life. Waiting until after the current full retirement age of 66 yields even greater gains — up to 44% more than early claiming.
We are interested in learning from our community: If you claimed Social Security benefits before your normal retirement age, what was the motivating reason?
Please let us know in the comments.
(If you facebook, you can leave your comment by clicking here)
Near retirees in Greater Baltimore are being beckoned by a billboard on wheels encouraging them to delay claiming Social Security. Baltimore is one of five U.S. cities where the National Committee has rolled out the “Delay and Gain”project, now in full swing.
In addition to mobile billboards, the public education project is reaching out to older workers via radio ads, editorial content, and social media. The message is straightforward: workers who delay retirement can gain bigger Social Security benefits – extra income that they’ll need in old age.
Read more from our newest blog post by clicking here.
You can increase the size of your future Social Security checks by delaying retirement. If you wait until you’re 66 to start taking your benefit, you can receive up to 44% more. And your cost of living increases going forward will be based on the higher amount. Life expectancy is much longer now than it was in 1935 when social security was created. Seniors of today must survive on their fixed incomes even longer.
It’s no secret that American workers face a major – and very real – retirement crisis. Wealth inequality and workplace changes have all but kicked-out two of the legs of the traditional retirement stool: pensions and private savings – both of which are at historic lows. More and more retirees have come to rely on the third leg of the stool, Social Security, for most of their income. (The average monthly Social Security benefit in New Jersey is about $1,500 or some $18,000 per year, only a few thousand dollars above the federal poverty line.)
Even with Social Security, nearly 7% of New Jersey seniors live in poverty. The good news is that workers can increase the size of their future Social Security checks by delaying retirement.
via NJ.com
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You can learn more from our education initiative, Delay & Gain, by clicking here.
Workers in Louisville face a major — and very real — retirement crisis. Wealth inequality and workplace changes have practically sawed off two of the legs of the traditional retirement stool: pensions and private savings.
More than half of today’s retirees rely on the third leg of the stool, Social Security, for most of their income. (The average Social Security benefit in Kentucky is roughly $16,000 per year, only about $3,500 above the federal poverty line for individuals.) Even with Social Security, some 13% of Kentucky seniors live in poverty. The good news is that workers can increase the size of their future Social Security checks by delaying retirement.
Read more from our new op-ed by clicking here.
United Income, a financial planning advisory service, just released an important study called, “The Retirement Solution Hiding In Plain Sight.” Using government data and proprietary software, it calculates how much money retirees have lost, and are losing, by making mistakes about when to start claiming Social Security benefits. United Income’s answer: a whopping $3.4 trillion or $111,000 per household!
That’s enough to move half of the oldest Americans now in poverty out of that terrible state. Put another way, according to United Income, the average Social Security recipient would get 9% more income in retirement by making the “financially optimal” decision about when to claim benefits.
Increasing Your Social Security Benefit By 177%
According to United Income, someone who’d get a $725 monthly Social Security benefit by starting to claim at 62 (the earliest age) would see a benefit increase to $1,280 by delaying to age 70 — an increase of 177%.
via Next Avenue.
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We speak on this issue in our new education initiative, Delay & Gain.
Our goal is to help near-retirees make informed, financially sound choices through an understanding of the increased Social Security benefits gained by a delay in filing their claim.
How would you teach that investment lesson?
And let us not forget the perennial challenge on whether to begin taking Social Security at 66 or age 70? Even the most highly educated and sophisticated financial planners often disagree on the answer to this age-old question. How would you teach that?
via Market Watch.
Related Reading:
We address this issue with our new education initiative, Delay & Gain.
The Delay & Gain education project is for older workers who are nearing retirement. Our goal is to help near-retirees make informed, financially sound choices through an understanding of the increased Social Security benefits gained by a delay in filing their claim.
This month, the NCPSSM kicks off a new educational campaign, Delay & Gain, to urge workers in their 60s to opt for more money, up to thousands of dollars per year in additional Social Security benefits, by working at least until their normal retirement age 66 or 67. Filing for Social Security at age 62 locks you into a lower benefit, permanently. You are not entitled to 100 percent of the benefit calculated from your earnings history unless you apply at your age 66 or 67
Launched by the Washington, DC-based NCPSSM, Delay & Gain includes a six-figure ad campaign targeting five U.S. cities where workforce participation is high, but too many workers are losing money by choosing to retire early.According to NCPSSM, more than one-third of American workers claim Social Security at the early retirement age of 62, lowering their monthly benefits for the rest of their lives. In a recent survey of American workers, nearly half of respondents did not know that their monthly Social Security benefits will be reduced by claiming at the earliest eligible age of 62 — and boosted up to 25 percent for waiting until the full retirement age of 66. Seniors who delay claiming until age 70 receive an even larger financial bump — up to 44 percent more than if they had filed for benefits early. For the average beneficiary that can mean a difference of roughly $1,000 per month in extra income.
via Herb Weiss.
Learn more about our new education initiative Delay & Gain by clicking here.
