When To Take Social Security

Financial planners will often advise waiting until age 70 to max out the potential amount of your Social Security checks. This may be a good policy but there are many variables that affect when you should claim. Amassed wealth for retirement, personal health, job security and/or burnout are some of the top reasons people may choose to apply before age 70.

Want more information and helpful tips? read, Should You Really Wait Until 70 to Take Social Security? New York Times

Retirement Mistakes to Avoid

You’ve enjoyed the celebrations and a few days of “sleeping-in,” and now you’re ready to start your retired life. Evan T. Beach from Kipplinger recommends these easy steps to help start your retirement in the right direction and keep it on track for years to come.

Avoid purchasing big ticket items or taking extravagant trips. See if you can actually plan these investments while you are still working in order to preserve retirement funds. It will also keep you from tapping into social security and retirement funds too quickly which can help with your tax rates later in life. Be sure to work with your financial planner to adjust your investment strategy, be careful not to lose touch with former co-workers and other acquaintances, and create a daily schedule for yourself. All of these things are an important part of maintaining an active life in retirement.
Read more here: Five Mistakes to Avoid in Your First Year of Retirement

Money Management Questions

Have questions about special needs trusts, Roth IRAs for children, or the proper age for you to start collecting social security? This article is for you! Liz Weston for the LA Times answers these questions and more about the best ways to preserve your income and leave the most lucrative inheritances for your family.

What is a special needs trust and how does it work?

The New Pension Plan

With such a variety of retirement plans, many  current workers will not have an actual pension.  Ann Carrns, for the New York Times suggests a variety of ways to make your savings work for you in her article, No Pension? You Can ‘Pensionize’ Your Savings.

Her top recommendations include working longer, delaying Social Security payments, and, creating a budget for the amounts that you are required to withdraw from your retirement accounts.

Pay Now or Pay Later

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Did you accrue debt when you were in college, from financial aid or student loans?  Been dodging those phone calls in an effort to not payback what you owe?  You might want to read this.  What seems like insurmountable debt now may become more than you ever dreamed, when the government starts taking it out of your Social Security check in forty years.  When it rains, it pours…

Student Loan Debt Burdens More Than Just Young People