FINANCIAL STRATEGIES GROUP
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What you need to know before
you claim.
SOCIAL SECURITY
By Financial Advisor, Brandon Carter,
CFP®, CIMA®, ChFC ®, CAP®,
MSFS
The key to good decision-making is putting the odds in your
favor. There are very few sure things in this life, and the best
we can do is make educated decisions. We make the choices
not to smoke, to eat healthily, or to exercise not because it
guarantees that we won't have health problems but because
it increases our odds of living a long and healthy life. We
should look at claiming Social Security, and most other financial
decisions, in the same light.
The Basics
To make a good decision regarding claiming Social Security
you first need to understand the basics of how it works.
Retirement benefits are monthly payments that are paid to
those who have paid into the Social security system for 40
quarters (i.e., an accumulated ten years) or more. You pay
into the system through FICA taxes on your paycheck as an
employee or through self-employment taxes for those who are
self-employed. The Social Security system uses your highest
35 working years (adjusted for inflation) to calculate your
benefit. The higher your average income is, the more monthly
retirement benefits you are eligible to receive.
Those who are entitled to benefits can claim those benefits
early, on time, or late. First, let's define what "on time" means.
"On time" is your "Full Retirement Age" (FRA).
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