Saving & Investing

What a trip! I checked the bank statement out on line before I left for my trip and I saw this amount of social security listed and I wondered what happened to my husband's check! Then I realized it was my first social security payment. I thought about waiting until I actually retired before I started drawing on it but it really doesn't raise that much after you are fully qualified. It raises something like .07 per month until it tops out at 3.2%.

It has been such a head trip to go in and make arrangements to start drawing my social security. I never thought this day would come and then with the change in the law making it longer before you fully qualified, it seemed like it would never arrive!

At this point I think I am going to use it to pay down on my mortage until such a time as it is my only income.

Great!  I started drawing my SS early too.  They were already kicking around making people wait until later, when I began drawing my funds.  Are you cutting back on your hours?  Be careful not to make too much money, or they will 'adjust' your payments.  Of course, you may make all the money you want, after you are 72 1/2 #unless they changed that too#.

Paying down your mortgage seems like a very good use for the money.  It is nice to know that the roof over one's head is mortgage free.  Best wishes to you Mary Frances!

I didn't draw early because I couldn't believe how much they were going to cut my check for the rest of life for starting say 3 months early. I totally qualified and now you can earn anything you want after you qualify.

One thing you may not be aware of is you can have federal taxes taken out of your social security check if you are in the group that gets 85% of your benefits taxed. Depending upon your situation you can have 7, 15 or 25 percent taken out. And there is a way that you can access your account at social security and change these amounts as you wish. I have a temporary password but I haven't set up the account yet there.

Due to the economy my hours at work were cut to 20 per week and so this is just going to make up for that loss. I look at it as easing into retirement!