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Social Security for Couples – It’s Complicated
Welcome back to Retirement Hangout! I recently turned 66 – Full Retirement Age for receiving Social Security retirement benefits. Inspired by this milestone, I decided to check out several free social security calculators even though I plan to defer benefits until I’m 70. Today’s post explores some of the thought-provoking results I found. As we all know, a successful relationship requires hard work; it turns out that this includes financial decision-making about when to take social security. Couples need to coordinate their social security retirement benefits to optimize their joint financial welfare. Exactly how they do this and what they decide will vary according to each couple’s circumstances, health, aversion…
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Managing Money in Retirement III: One Annuity You Should Buy
This is the third of a series of posts on retirement withdrawal strategies. If you haven’t read Managing Money in Retirement I and II, please read them first! In the last post, we explored the options for generating a lifetime income, something most retirees would find desirable and reassuring. Social security fits the bill, but may not be sufficient to cover essential expenses. Most people today don’t receive pensions, and the other options – bond ladders and annuities – have significant disadvantages (as well as some attractive features). But there is one source of lifetime income that stands out from the pack. An annuity that is a good deal Most…
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Managing Money in Retirement II: Income for a Lifetime
This is the second of a series of posts on retirement withdrawal strategies. If you haven’t read Managing Money in Retirement I, please read it first! Most of us would feel more comfortable having a reliable source of income in retirement — at least enough to cover our essential needs – rather than being completely at the mercy of uncertain investments in stocks, bonds, real estate or more exotic things. As a practical matter, though, how can we go about building the floor of a floor-and-upside strategy? First, let’s define what we’d like in the ideal world. The best source of income would be an inflation-indexed payment, lasting for…