{"id":51750,"date":"2021-12-22T11:09:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T16:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51750"},"modified":"2021-12-22T11:09:37","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T16:09:37","slug":"should-i-take-social-security-even-if-i-dont-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/12\/should-i-take-social-security-even-if-i-dont-need-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Take Social Security Even If I Don\u2019t Need It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I am 66 years plus 8 months old, am still working making six figures, and can support myself. I\u2019m a healthy, self-employed single woman and have a State Pension (from a divorce settlement). I will work part time, probably through next year and until I am 70 years old or more. What should I do about my Social Security &#8211; take it or &#8220;bank it\u201d in Social Security?&nbsp;<strong>Signed: Fully Independent Lady<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Happens-to-the-Social-Security-Taxes-I-Paid-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Happens-to-the-Social-Security-Taxes-I-Paid-1024x683-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Happens-to-the-Social-Security-Taxes-I-Paid-1024x683-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Happens-to-the-Social-Security-Taxes-I-Paid-1024x683-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dear Fully Independent:<\/strong>&nbsp;When to take your Social Security is always a personal choice which should look at your health, life expectancy and need for the money at this time. Since you imply that you don\u2019t really need the money at this time, you might choose to simply wait until age 70 to claim, which will give you both the highest possible monthly benefit in your later years, as well as the most in cumulative lifetime benefits if you enjoy at least average longevity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statistically, according to Social Security, a healthy woman your current age will, on average, live to about 87. If you wait until age 70 to claim (vs. claiming now) your benefit will be about 30% higher and you\u2019ll breakeven money-wise when you\u2019re about 83. Depending upon your benefit amount and how long you live, that could give you tens of thousands of dollars more in benefits during your later years, and that higher monthly SS benefit would be a good hedge against future inflation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep in mind too that, at your current income level, up to 85% your Social Security benefits will become part of your taxable income. Even if you are only working part time, your combined income from all sources (including half of your SS benefits) will cause a minimum of 50% of your SS benefits for each tax year to become part of your taxable income at your normal IRS tax rate. The point being that the amount of your SS benefits which will be taxed by the IRS is related to your overall income, so there are tax advantages to waiting to claim until your income is lower.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can only advise you on your Social Security options. If you wish to consider claiming your SS earlier and investing those benefits, you should seek the services of a Certified Financial Planner who can discuss your investment options, your risk tolerance and possible rate of return. From a Social Security standpoint, waiting until age 70 will maximize your benefit amount and, if you enjoy at least average longevity, reduce your \u201clongevity risk\u201d (the risk you might outlive your money). It will also yield the most in lifetime SS benefits. But, in the end, only you can make that decision after carefully considering all your options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am 66 years plus 8 months old, am still working making six figures, and can support myself. I\u2019m a healthy, self-employed single woman and have a State Pension (from&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[974],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51752,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51750\/revisions\/51752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}