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A Lack of Social Knowledge Can Create a Big Problem!
What you don’t know can hurt you, especially when it comes to Social Security decisions. That’s a simple fact that we deal with routinely at the AMAC Foundation Social Security Advisory Service. For example, being unaware of the earnings test that limits benefits for early filers who stay in the workforce can lead to an unplanned interruption in income. Not considering the effect on a spouse’s benefits is another example.
A Real-Life Example
But one of the larger misunderstandings is that of one’s full retirement age, a planning error that can result in a permanent loss of monthly income. GoBankingRate’s Allison Hache recaps, in a post on their website, an example of how filing before full retirement age without understanding the benefit reduction impacts beneficiaries later in life. It’s not uncommon, since so many media accounts of retirement strategies (and even many governmental analyses) stick doggedly to age 65 as the “retirement age,” leading so many to overlook the penalty for early filing. Age 65 as everyone’s full retirement milestone became a thing of the past with the 1983 Social Security Amendments. Check out Ms. Hache’s post here.