Social Security Questions

Or it could be a Medicare part B (physician and hospital services coverage) supplement plan from Blue Cross. Lots of insurance companies offer these plans. There are a number of them all designated by a letter, and generally they cover some or all of the 20 percent of the services that Medicare approves but does not cover, with some of or all of the Medicare deductible. You pay a separate premium to the insurance company over and above what you pay (or is deducted from your monthly social security benefit) once you are on Medicare or Medicaid.
 
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OP here. It's interesting looking at all these responses, and it also supports my contention that there is no easy answer. I think I'm going to file for SS in the next couple months. I have plenty in my retirement accounts and my DW is still working and providing medical benefits. I have 2 years until medicare. People have said, if you don't need it yet, why take it, but there is the idea that if you don't need it, why not take it and put it away? Or the idea of deteriorating health? So many perspectives.....
 
I have a great Medicare Advantage plan from Aetna, and it has a Zero premium, so I only actually pay the 134 dollars that Medicare takes from my monthly benefit. My mom has been gone since 2008, so it's too late to go back, and see what her plan actually was. Regardless, it was way too much money for her budget. I have a great agent, who helped me sign up for my plan, and keeps in touch with me on a regular basis, in case I am having problems. When I have had issues, he is "Johnny on the spot", and helped me big time.
 
My mom retired at 62 1/2. She didn't touch her IRA money until she was required to at age 70 1/2, and then it just went from the IRA account to her savings account. While that was taxable income, she took the minimum legally required distribution, which fell below the minimum taxable income level with the IRS.

But our game plan is to pay the least income tax possible in retirement. She lived 28 years of comfortable retirement, but only had to file a tax return once in those 28 years because her taxable income was so low.

I know so little about social security but I read this whole thread. Fascinating! Can you ( would you please) talk a bit more about this? What is the minimum taxable income level? Or is it the same amount as the standard deduction? THanks! ( trying to make notes for later)
 


Let's see if I can ask this questions correctly.....My wife is retiring at the end of July. She will have made approximately $35,000. She is 62, going to be 63 in October. She will be taking her Social Security early. If she starts taking her SS in October, when she turns 63, will her income for the year have any impact on the amount of SS she receives? Should she wait until January 2020 to start taking SS, as at that time the only income she will have is her pension? Hope I ask this correctly.
 


Let's see if I can ask this questions correctly.....My wife is retiring at the end of July. She will have made approximately $35,000. She is 62, going to be 63 in October. She will be taking her Social Security early. If she starts taking her SS in October, when she turns 63, will her income for the year have any impact on the amount of SS she receives? Should she wait until January 2020 to start taking SS, as at that time the only income she will have is her pension? Hope I ask this correctly.
I was wondering the same thing, if I have other income do I have to wait to the next fiscal year to avoid penalties
 
To answer that, it make be important to know the full household income, not just the wife's income. And we're not really talking about penalties in that situation. We're talking about income tax on social security. It sure would be "cleaner" to wait until January to take social security, and it would probably be a few dollars more per month that way. That would be enough to prompt me to wait three months without even trying to figure out the tax situation.

If you want to know what the impact will be, anyway, the best advice would be to take some time and do some self-learning. You want to get to the point where you can think through some of these things yourself. Even if you get financial advice like this (either online or from a professional) you really want to get to the point where you can have enough knowledge yourself that you can feel comfortable with the advice you are getting and taking. To learn about determining how much of social security it taxable you can start here: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taxation_of_Social_Security_benefits

I also suggest people find an online community where such questions are what the forum is for. You might get useful information here but I think as we approach and enter retirement we all will need so much information about it that we're better off expanding beyond our Disney forum to learn those things.
 

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