Posted By, Meredith Anderson
People who began collecting Social Security at age 62 and restart their retirement benefits at 70 would get about 76% more a month. The catch is that they must repay what they had already received.
By Kathy M. Kristof Personal Finance
November 1, 2009
The Social Security Administration recently announced that retirees would get no cost-of-living adjustments this year -- and maybe not even next year -- because the inflation measure it uses to determine them has declined for the first time in more than three decades.
Congress and the administration are working on legislation to provide seniors a $250 consolation prize, a one-time check that would amount to about 2% of the average senior's benefits. But retirees may be able to do far better than that by taking advantage of a loophole in the Social Security law. Using this loophole, which allows you to "restart" your retirement benefits years after you've retired, can be risky. But if you're healthy, have some savings and are under age 70, it may well pay off in spades.
Someone who originally retired at age 62 and "re-retires" at 70, for example, would boost monthly benefit payments by 76%, said Brett Horowitz, a certified financial planner with Evensky & Katz in Coral Gables, Fla.
This is very interesting. I can't imagine already being retired and then realizing this. -Nicole Nelson
ReplyDelete