Planning to claim Social Security in the near future? Be careful what advice you take.
“Few retirement decisions are as critical, or as easy to get wrong, as when and how to you’re your Social Security benefits,” writes Liz Weston.
The rules are so convoluted that sometimes employees don’t quite understand them. They’re supposed to educate, rather than advise, yet stories abound of people filing for Social Security based on information that’s not in their best interests.
In an article called “Don’t let Social Security steer you wrong,” Weston shares the story of a man who was eligible for a now-defunct rule called a “restricted application.” The person who processed his application outright ignored the man’s request and signed him up for plain old retirement benefits instead.
That guy was able to fix things. Not everyone is so fortunate: A report from Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General estimates than 9,224 widows and widowers over the age of 70 lost out on $131.8 million because they didn’t get the right advice.
Feeling a little nervous right now? I certainly am.
Weston’s article suggests ways to get the best information. Some are free tactics and others require paid professional advice and/or specialized software. Given that a mistake can cost you big bucks every month for the rest of your life, I think it’s a good idea to get advice from more than one source. That’s my plan.
And if the information doesn’t match up? Keep looking. The budget you save may be your own.
Save big bucks on things you need
My daughter lucked into learning about a new site, Auction Nation, that is going to be a big help for upcoming home improvements. She wrote about this on her blog, I Pick Up Pennies.
Auction Nation hosts online auctions run by local liquidators. Abby is in the market for things like better lighting fixtures, framed artwork, and items she needs for a bathroom remodel. She’s been delighted with the home improvement items she’s seen thus far, noting that a lot of them are identical to things she’s scoped out at Lowe’s and Home Depot. The housewares are “usually customer returns from those stores that the liquidators have bought up on the cheap.”
The friends who clued her in on this were bidding on a bathroom vanity that normally lists for $1,500 retail. They wound up paying just $398, including sales tax and auction fee.
“That’s 73.5 percent off retail,” Abby notes.
She quickly scored a very handsome three-light fixture for her own bathroom. While it’s usually possible to inspect items ahead of time, she relied on the website photo and got the light for just $38.93, or 18 percent of its usual retail price (which she confirmed on the Home Depot website).
Her article spells out the pros and cons, and offers some best-practice tips for using Auction Nation. Since writing it, Abby has also obtained some artwork, and is keeping an eye out for things like shower sets and towel racks.
She points out that loads of other categories might be available, depending on where you live. In the Phoenix area she’s seeing auctions for business/industrial items, sporting foods, restaurant equipment, sports/celebrity memorabilia, electronics, furniture, clothing, accessories and even automobiles.
If you’re in the market for an item (or a gift, given that the holidays approacheth), go read her post and find out more. Again, the budget you save may be your own.
Money news you can use
Overwhelmed by the number of financial articles online? Here’s one way to cut through the clutter: Subscribe to Apex Money.
It’s a kind of money news omnibus curated by J.D. Roth (of Get Rich Slowly) and Jim Wang (of Wallet Hacks). Their daily newsletter highlights the best articles, audio and video the two of them have found – a wide variety of words that you might never have found on your own.
If you don’t want the daily e-mails, you could always just go read their website every day. One thing you won’t find there, incidentally, is advertising. Apex Money is a labor of love for J.D. and Jim, who set out to create something that will “change the way you think about money and life.”
I have been blessed to find my home redo items with free or cheap on FB marketplace. Free light fixtures, $100 bath vanity. The key is to keep watching & be patient.
Thanks for telling me about Apex Money. I don’t read a lot of blogs, but I will be checking that one out.
They do the legwork for me. I like that. Hope you will, too.
Abby might want to check with her local Habitat for Humanity.
Our local branch has a ReStore, where they sell used or surplus building materials.
She’s been checking the Phoenix Re-Store as well. Auction Nation is just another way to stretch her dollars.
With Social Security, I went to SSA.Gov and studied the options and found out with a calculator about what I would get at 62 and then 66. They offered half of my husbands at 62 with the option to use my own at full retirement age. At that time, I was self-employed (still am) and my health insurance was through the roof in premiums. If I took Social Security, it would count as income and I would lose the benefits of ACA for my health insurance at 62. No way. I waited until I was 66 to get it and just budgeted tighter back then. After all, it was only a few years and I have lived on less in my life.
Ugh, it’s bad enough when things are complicated, but for the folks who work there to actively ignore applicant requests and make mistakes burns me up. All the info in the world isn’t going to help if you can’t get someone to execute the instructions properly. It reminds me of the giant mess that getting my maternity leave benefits paid out was. It was such a pain and so time consuming fighting to get through to a human to correct their errors that I was relieved to go back to work so far as the pay went. I do not look forward to dealing with Social Security snafus. If it’s even still throwing out money by the time I need it…
Thanks for the link to the Liz Weston article, I’ll check it out. Too many people don’t even think about social security until they reach a certain age.
For anyone who hasn’t opened a My Social Security account at ssa.gov, please do so. It will give you an idea of what your benefits will be at what age. It should also prevent someone else from claiming your benefits.
A few years before our retirement, we attended a Social Security seminar being presented by a SS employee (learned of it through our local Senior Center). We had to drive 3 cities away – 40 minutes, but it was so worth it! The presenter gave us lots of information and explained multiple SS retirement options and explained the results of each one. Often Senior Centers have great knowledge of resources, even if one is not retired.