If you're retired and are interested in having a higher income for as long as you live, you have two main options.
You can buy a life annuity. This will provide you with an income, with or without inflation adjustments, for as long as you live. ...Fortunately, there is a simple alternative. It will work nicely for retirees in their late 60s or early 70s who opted, years ago, to take Social Security benefits at a relatively young age. That's millions of people.
If you did this, you know your benefits were reduced because taking benefits early meant Social Security would have to pay benefits for more years.
But you easily can reapply from scratch. Visit the local Social Security office. Make use of a little-known and seldom-exercised provision - request a "Withdrawal of Application." By filing an SSA Form 521, Social Security will treat you as if you had never applied for benefits. It will let you immediately reapply for benefits - at your current age.
Yes, there is a catch. And it's a big one. You must repay every dime you've received in past benefits.
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Feb 19, 2008
I Don't Think Many People Will Take This Advice!
From the Boston Globe (emphasis added):
Imagine someone convincing retirees to take out a mortgage on their home to pay back t-2 so they can get a higher monthly benefit--stranger things have happened.
ReplyDeleteYou have to repay Medicare premiums and any money Medicare paid out on a claim. Doesn't make much sense unless you decide to W/D the claim soon after entitlement begins.
ReplyDeletePlus everyone on the record has to agree to the W/D.
A lot of people want to W/D the claim because they decided to go back to work, but in that case it's much easier to provide a work estimate to suspend benefits and they pick up the ARF at FRA for all the months benefits were suspended for work.