Social Security Claiming Strategy

When Can You Claim Social Security?

Watch as Erin Kennedy and Nolan Goslee from Cornerstone Retirement Partners discuss the Social Security claiming strategy. Nolan highlights the fact that only 4% of people are claiming Social Security at the most financially optimal time, resulting in a loss of $111,000 per household for the remaining 96%. They emphasize the importance of developing a proper claiming strategy and considering variables such as insolvency concerns, current income needs, and individual situations. Nolan also discusses the need for a good income plan and not relying on others’ decisions when it comes to claiming Social Security.

Nolan Goslee and his team at Cornerstone Retirement Partners have professional financial advisors and Medicare specialists who cross-train in a variety of retirement planning specialties. They assist working people with the process of retiring – helping them sign up for Medicare and Social Security and creating income plans from the wealth they have accumulated. They recognize that as investment fiduciaries, they are required to act in the best interest of our clients. That’s why we take care of all aspects of retirement – not just your 401k. To learn more you can talk to Nolan and his team here.

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Transcript:

Erin Kennedy (00:16):

Hello, and welcome to Retirement Wealth Academy. I’m your host, Erin Kennedy. Thanks for being with us. This show is dedicated to helping retirees and pre-retirees sort through some of the most complicated topics surrounding retirement. And for that, we turn to local experts. And today, we have Nolan Goslee. Nolan, good to see you.

Nolan Goslee (00:32):

Thanks. Good to be here.

Erin Kennedy (00:33):

Yep. Nolan, you’re with Cornerstone Retirement Partners, and I want to talk about a really startling number that I just learned. I’m calling it the Social Security mistake. Only 4% of people are claiming Social Security at the most financially optimal time. The remaining 96% are then missing out on $111,000 per household. That’s unbelievable.

Nolan Goslee (00:55):

It’s a huge amount of money. That’s one of the things that we go over first when we’re developing income plans for people. So part of our income planning process is developing a Social Security claiming strategy that shows you, over your lifetime, how much money you’re going to be earning from that system. When you see a lifetime number versus a monthly number, it’s a lot different. Five or $600,000 over your lifetime, like you said, is a lot different than four or 500,000. So to have a proper claiming strategy is probably the most important thing with Social Security, and it has a lot of different variables in it.

Erin Kennedy (01:31):

Another number, one third of people actually claim the first year they’re eligible, at 62. I think a lot of us have concerns about insolvency in the program. Are you hearing that from people?

Nolan Goslee (01:42):

Yeah. Insolvency is a big concern. A lot of people are just worried that the benefit isn’t going to be there if they wait too long to claim it. Some of the good things about that is you get more current money, you get more current income, and that’s what a lot of people focus on is the here and now. Whereas, the longer you delay, the larger that benefit gets. So if you’re married or you have dependents in the home or other things like that, you may want to consider delaying, just to maximize the benefit.

Erin Kennedy (02:06):

That makes sense. So what are some specific variables then that you’re walking people through? Because of course, if we knew when we were going to exit this world, then it would be very easy to determine when you should claim. So what should I be considering?

Nolan Goslee (02:19):

So a big consideration that a lot of people miss is, if you are planning to delay, the consideration needs to be how to take money out of your accounts to fill that gap. If you want to retire early, you don’t have to claim Social Security right away, so long as you have a good plan in place to fill the first year’s worth of gap or two years or three years, whatever that might be. So I think developing a good income plan, having a good claiming strategy for Social Security, and not just claiming based on what you heard your friend or your neighbor or whoever else do. Your situation’s much different than theirs is. So it’s an individual approach for an individual situation.

Erin Kennedy (02:54):

Yeah, I can understand that though, because it is so overwhelming to sort through all those permutations that, if you feel like you’ve heard somebody claiming one way, it makes sense that a lot of people just kind of say, “Okay, well then, I’m just going to do that,” right?

Nolan Goslee (03:06):

Yep. Somebody else makes the decision for you, and then, it’s their fault if it doesn’t work out quite right, right?

Erin Kennedy (03:10):

Yeah, well, talking this through was very, very helpful, Nolan. Thank you.

Nolan Goslee (03:13):

Thanks, Erin.