Click below to listen to Episode 168 – Unlock The Optimal Time For Claiming Social Security






Unlock The Optimal Time For Claiming Social Security

Start to unravel the mystery of when to begin taking Social Security benefits.

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Bob and Shawn delve into the complexities of deciding when to take Social Security. They discuss factors to consider when taking Social Security such as your current age, anticipated lifespan based on family history, potential income sources, and whether you’re still working. Bob emphasizes the importance of calculating the breakeven point for starting Social Security benefits early versus later, factoring in the time value of money.

They also touch on political implications and uncertainties surrounding the future of Social Security. As always, Bob and Shawn reference Biblical scriptures, tying financial decisions to faith-based values.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS^®, CKA^®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

Mentioned In This Episode













Christian Financial Advisors



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Bob Barber, CWS^®, CKA^®



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Shawn Peters



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Bible Verses In This Episode






LUKE 14:28-30

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:

Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.

Shawn:

Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters. I’m joined as always by my father-in-law and co-host Bob Barber. We are building a community of like-minded Christians who want to glorify God with their investments and finances. So if you enjoy that kind of content, we’d love for you to hit subscribe and know every time we post a new video. So, today we’re gonna be covering a topic on Social Security and when should you take it. I know this is something that a lot of people ask, especially if you’re in that 60 to 70 age range. So we wanna try to help answer that question for you today. Bob.

Bob:

Okay, Shawn. So, like you said, it’s one of the hottest topics out there about when you should take Social Security, especially if you’re around 60. That’s me. I just turned 61. And I got my Social Security statement and I’m thinking, all right, what should I do? Should I take it next year? And of course, based on what I know, I’m not going to, I’m not gonna take it probably till I’m 70. Cause as you know, y’all are not gonna let me retire around here. So, I have to work forever. But this is a very hot topic today amongst people in my age group. And as you know, there’s millions retiring in my age group trying to answer this question. And I think it really, for a Christian, it boils down to, too, there’s this scriptural principle that we find in Luke 14:28-30 about counting the cost. And Shawn, I always pick on you to read the scripture. So if you would read that for us.

Shawn:

Well, it’s just because I have such a melodious voice.

Bob:

There you go. Exactly.

Shawn:

It’s soothing .

Bob:

Yeah.

Shawn:

All right. Luke 14:28-30, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it, for if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.'”

Bob:

Now that really goes with retirement planning and not able to finish means you’re not able to finish life. Okay. With enough money.

Shawn:

The money runs out before life runs out.

Bob:

Exactly. So when I broke this down, and I spent a lot of time on this, I think I told you I spent about 10 or 12 hours. Normally, a lot of the programs I can do and just put together in 15 or 20 minutes. This one I spent some time on. And we’re gonna go over four areas today in the program. We’re gonna go over questions and ideas you need to think about with your Social Security. The second one is how working income affects your Social Security benefits. Questions asked before taking Social Security before your full retirement age (FRA). You’ll hear us say that again many times is FRA, that’s how Social Security refers to it, too, full retirement age, and what’s the break even point? This is a real big one. What’s the brave break even point for taking Social Security earlier or later based on math? And you know how I like math.

Shawn:

Oh, Bob, you and math. It’s almost like you want to try to make this objective and non-emotional.

Bob:

. Exactly. Yeah. So we wanna start with that first question that we talked about, the questions and ideas you need to think about before or when taking Social Security. So number one.

Shawn:

So the first one, yeah. Are you still working? And if so, what is your earned income?

Bob:

And we’ll go over that here in a minute. How long might you live? Okay, so you’ve gotta think about this is, well, I really don’t know, but think about it. What are your genetics? At what age did your parents or grandparents pass away? Your parents may still be living and like siblings, and are they all still alive to date? That has a lot to do. You can kind of figure out how long you’re gonna live. I go drive by my graveyard and I see everybody lives to 88 or 90 years old, so I’m kind of figuring on 90. Should I offset an early retirement income before Social Security for eligibility age or just take it? Because if you do, if you don’t take it, you’re gonna have to take more from your nest egg. And the fifth one we have here.

Shawn:

And then we also have, where will your income come fromt – that’s hard to say – if you’re retired or retiring soon? Is that pension, IRA, savings, Social Security, all these sources? And then the last one, of course, if I take Social Security early, it will be less. So is this wise in the long run?

Bob:

Yeah. So we’ll look at the math and see that, so this is how working income affects Social Security benefits and why it’s so important if you’re still working, in my opinion, you don’t wanna take Social Security benefits when you’re still working, but you’ll see why here. Because if you start taking that, for every $1 – and the number today is $21,240 – for every $1 that you make over that, you’re gonna have your Social Security benefits taken away from you. So it works like this. In other words, Social Security deducts $1 from your benefits for every $2 you make over the annual limit. Okay. So basically you’re getting a 50% reduction, Shawn, in your Social Security benefits if you take it before full retirement age. And for many of us, like most of us are born after 1960, my age, and that full retirement age is 67. So if I start taking Social Security at 62 and Shawn, I make more than $21,000, then half of my Social Security benefits are gonna be taken away from me.

Shawn:

You know, if you’re working and not making more than $21,000, that’s probably a different problem anyway. But yeah. But wow, that’s really low. So, if you’re watching this and you make more than $21,000 I would say yeah…

Bob:

You wanna delay. Delay off taking your Social Security.

Shawn:

Yeah, exactly.

Bob:

Also, there’s another point in here, too. If you are still working and you do reach full retirement age, which in my case would be 67 years old. If I’m going to make over $56,000, basically $56,520, that’s this year, Social Security is gonna deduct $1 in benefits for every $3 above that number. So they’re basically, instead of taking half, they’re taking a third, but they’re still taking it from you. This is why if I don’t plan on retiring till 70 and I make beyond $56,000, I’m not gonna take it.

Shawn:

But again, this only applies if you’re still working when you take Social Security.

Bob:

That’s right.

Shawn:

Gotcha. Okay.

Bob:

You got it. That’s right. Okay. But there’s a nice thing here. And do you see that point?

Shawn:

Yes. You want me to go for it?

Bob:

You go over it.

Shawn:

Okay. All right. So unearned income, like interest, investment income, stock dividends, income from a pension, retirement plan, annuity and rental income, if it’s not a full-time business, will not affect the Social Security benefits.

Bob:

Yeah. So if you’ve done really well saving and you are 62 years old now and you wanna take your benefits from your savings, which is considered unearned income, that’s not gonna affect your benefits. It’s only going to be earned income if you retire on what you’re making at the Home Depot or the Lowe’s, because I’ve always said that’s what, if I retired, that’s where I’d go work.

Shawn:

Oh yeah. Help people with all the random handyman stuff.

Bob:

And the discounts I’d get. because I’m there all the time anyway.

Shawn:

Yeah. You gotta feed your habit. .

Bob:

So the general rule is it’s best to wait to take Social Security if you’re still working full-time, because odds are like, again, you’re making above the threshold of $21,240 dollars a year. That’s before the full retirement age or after the 56, after the retirement age.

Shawn:

So next, questions to ask before taking Social Security before full retirement age. So the first one, are your parents still living in their eighties or nineties? So, age longevity is an essential factor in determining if you should take Social Security before your full retirement age, the FRA.

Bob:

That’s right. If you’re retiring early, which is better? Taking Social Security early or from your retirement nest egg. Okay, so you need $5,000 a month to live on, or $6,000. Social Security would maybe provide you $2000 of that. Well, if you’re gonna delay taking Social Security, that means you’re gonna have to take another $2000 a month from your retirement nest egg that you’ve saved for many, many years. So you gotta ask yourself, do I wanna take that from myself or do I wanna take what the government wants to give me now that I’m going to be taking those Social Security benefits, either before Full Retirement Age or after or right at.

Shawn:

Okay. So the next one, what is the general breakeven point for starting earlier versus later?

Bob:

Yeah. And we’re gonna go over the mathematical equation here for that. Okay. And the annual benefit at full retirement age, you wanna subtract the benefit at age 62. So we’re gonna go into the mathematical formula for how this works, because it’s basically like this. Let’s say that you’re going to get $20,000 a year if you started taking Social Security right now. But the other side is I’m gonna wait to 67. That’s five years, right? What’s $20,000 times five.

Shawn:

Oh, wow. Don’t, that’s simple math. It’s a million, right? Kidding. . It’s a hundred thousand.

Bob:

$100,000. So you realize that, Shawn, if you’re 62 years old and you do wanna start taking Social Security, but you’ve always heard, wait, wait, wait, wait. And you wait another five years to your full retirement age, how much less money have you gotten so far? A hundred thousand. You’ve gotta take that number of a hundred thousand. And I looked at what if you were to receive $20,000 per year at age 62, the number that you would get at age 67 would be $9,411 of extra benefit. Okay.

Shawn:

Per year?

Bob:

Per year. So what do you do? You take that 100,000, you divide that by 9,411, because that’s the additional benefit.

Shawn:

Got it. Which gives you an extra 10.62 years. So it’s almost 11, but say 10 and a half.

Bob:

So now we’ve pushed the benefit out by 10. We pushed the breakeven point by 10 years. In other words, you started taking Social Security early five years early. And by doing that, it takes another 10 years once you start taking it to catch up. Now you’re at 15 years to the breakeven point. Now, I started taking that and I said, well, what about the time value of money?

Shawn:

Right.

Bob:

You gotta add another three to four years there. So by the time that you get – if you start taking it at 62, your breakeven point is basically 18 to 19 years, or around 80 to 81.

Shawn:

By taking it early?

Bob:

By taking it early. Okay. So you gotta ask yourself when you’re 62 years old, do I know for sure I’m going to live 18 years? Or could something take me out before tomorrow? But then again, this is why it’s so important to look at how long have your parents lived? In other words, if you think you’re gonna live to 90, it would be better to wait to take…

Shawn:

Until 67.

Bob:

Right. Exactly.

Shawn:

Makes sense.

Bob:

Yeah. But here’s another thing. Politically, where is Social Security today? You know, we just had to extend the government debt by a lot.

Shawn:

That ceiling was extended again or raised whatever the proper terminology is.

Bob:

So, this is my opinion and this is an opinion only. And so it’s kind of a politically waived opinion, but I believe that those who have been responsible and have saved will be penalized later. The government’s gonna say, well, if you’ve got a couple million in your retirement nest egg, why do we need to keep giving you full Social Security benefits? So there’s a lot.

Shawn:

Even though you’ve been paying in your entire career, but now all of a sudden because you actually did what you should do, which is save, save, and invest and plan for the future. Now all of a sudden, oh, well we don’t need to pay you because we haven’t managed things properly. And now, we need to pay all these other people’s Social Security that didn’t plan ahead.

Bob:

The government always…

Shawn:

Could never see the government doing something like that.

Bob:

They always penalize people who are responsible. I don’t know why, but it just, and I’m making a statement and I know it’s a political statement.

Shawn:

I think maybe it’s jealousy, Bob, because most of your government officials don’t know how to actually budget or plan ahead.

Bob:

Shawn:

They just raised the debt ceiling and spend more money.

Bob:

So now you’re 62 years old and you’re asking yourself, should I start taking Social Security right now? Well, those are questions you have to think about. You have to think about what’s my longevity? Am I still working? What do I think is gonna happen to Social Security in the next 15 to 18 years? Will they adjust it by how much I have in my retirement plan? I think that’s going to be what’s gonna save Social Security. I do not believe Social Security’s going away. I don’t think that, if anything, it would be political suicide for any politician to start messing with Social Security to where it would, the system would break. But it will be very top heavy, and it’s getting more and more top heavy, meaning there’s more people taking out than putting in. The bottom line is there is a lot of financial planning that’s gotta be done here. You can’t just say, well, I just wanna take it early at 62. It’s gotta be put into a financial plan. And you’ve gotta look at what your benefits are. You’ve gotta look at what the break even is. You’ve gotta look at your age longevity. So, this just needs a lot of financial planning, bottom line.

Shawn:

To try to simplify it a little bit, though.

Bob:

Okay.

Shawn:

For our viewers and listeners, it really comes down to a few specific points. The first one, I think, that people need to know is your longevity. Now, obviously none of us know what time the Lord has appointed for us. We don’t know how long we’re gonna be here, but just kind like when insurance companies are looking at what to charge you for premiums.

Bob:

Well, they have the mortality tables.

Shawn:

They look at statistics. So, if your family has a history of great-granddad and granddad and dad, they all lived to 90 something. Okay. Well you should, assuming you’re staying in good health, you should probably assume on 90 for planning purposes. But if everybody, you know leaves early in late 70’s or 80, like well then, yeah, that could make a big difference on whether you should take it early or not. And then obviously the second part is what are your actual income needs? You know, if you’re able to, like Bob was just talking about a little earlier, if you’re able to weather the storm for an extra five years and you’re expected to live to 90 based on your family history, well the math says you would be a lot more better off. I said more better . You’d be better off waiting till 67.

Bob:

Shawn, like I said…

Shawn:

Just trying to keep it simple.

Bob:

You need to do a lot of financial planning with this, and put all this into the system. We have our system, we put the financials, I mean all the Social Security benefits are figured in there. You just put in income, it’s all laid out and it can show you in the form of a graph. So that’s gonna do it for today. Shawn, there’s so much here with Social Security. I could have gone another 30 minutes talking about this.

Shawn:

Well, we were trying to keep it simple and helpful and hopefully point you guys in the right direction. So yeah, it’s an interesting topic.

Bob:

And if you need some help with this, we are here. Our phone number you can text or call is (830) 609-6986. Or you can find us on the web www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Thank you for listening.

[CONCLUSION]

That’s all for now.

We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.

[DISCLOSURES]

Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, also known as Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the host, Bob Barber and his guests. Bob does not provide tax advice and encourages you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Investment Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.