Timothy Sumer

See two of my favorite strategies for delaying your Social Security retirement benefit. There are other solutions as well, but we get into the pros and cons (and a brief example) of working longer and spending from your savings. The longer you wait to claim your Social Security benefit, the more you get. Your benefits increase by roughly 8% per year until age 70, but most people can claim as early as age 62. There’s a big difference between how much you get at age 62 and age 70. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as saying “I’ll just wait.” If you stop working before you take benefits, you’ll need a way to pay expenses before those Social Security payments come in. You can use your 401(k), IRA, or other retirement savings accounts to pay costs. Taxable accounts and other financial resources can also come in handy. But it takes some careful planning to pull this off—you’re going to take significant withdrawals from your savings, so it’s crucial to run some numbers (of course

Join the newsletter: How should Social Security, annuities, pensions and other forms of guaranteed income affect our asset allocation during retirement. Some argue that we should treat them like bonds. They offer near guaranteed, stable income, and therefore, they should constitute part of our bond allocation. A better approach, in my opinion, is to simply reduce or annual income requirements be the amount of these guaranteed payments. Then base our asset allocation on any additional income we need to generate from our investments. I walk through both approaches in this video. Resources mentioned in video & some bonus resources Annuity Calculator: Personal Capital (Investment Tracking, retirement planning ): Kitces' article: Bengen article: Kitces' interview: Forbes article on valuing social security: Social Security Valuation Calculator: Investing Tools & Resources 📚 My Book (Retire Before Mom and Dad): 📈 Personal Capital (Investment