Social Security, Input Pls

[Miranda]

My FIL will be 62 in a few months & is anxiously waiting to be able to start collecting his Soc. Sec.
He plans to continue working full time. He has $0 saved towards retirement, no 401k, nothing like that. $0 in EF. No property. He's married & still has a 19 y/o living @ home,who has a minimal job. I don't know much on the subject & he has asked me for info. I advised him that I thought it wasn't a good idea. He's set in his ways. He thinks that this will prevent them from living pay chk to pay chk, not understanding that it's how they spend the money they do have, that is the real issue. My MIL doesn't keeps track of where money goes, she feels money is to spend, & if she has it, she'll spend it. She'll go out to eat & then say I don't have enough for the electric bill, or there just isn't anything left over to save, after she went shopping for herself. She's in charge of the finances in the home & witholds alot of the info fr. FIL. What are your suggestions, if any? TIA

[Natalia]

Holy crap, dude. Please tell me he has a company pension.

Does MIL work? She needs to start. She also needs to be fired from taking care of the finances.

FIL needs to wake up. Today. Only thing worse than having zero saved at age 62 is having zero saved at age 62 and a day. They need a buffer between them n the street.

And youre right, this is a spending issue, not a money issue. The more you make, the more you spend, unless you tell the money what to do. Been there...paying the stupid tax now.

[ladytoysdream]

Hi and welcome to the site.

He can draw at 62, but that is the amount he will continue to draw. It will not
change when he reaches full retirement age, which I believe is 65 for him.
If he continues to work full time....any money that is over $ 14,100
for the year , he will only be allowed to keep $ 1 of every $ 2 that he earns.
My ex works a part time job, and he makes sure he does not make over 14,100
for the year. So he has the part time job, his SS, and some pension money.
And he still cries poverty.
So if someone does not know how to manage their money well currently, then SS is
not going to fix their problems.

Lots of reading on the social security site.

[dcompton]

Like ladytoysdream said, if he is continuing to work full time, this is probably a bad idea. He will lose some he is working for, and it will permanently decrease the amount of SS he will draw later, which will be a serious consequence when he is no longer working and has only the SS to rely on.

[hmcart]

This is a scary situation to be in. My grandparents are older and collect ss. They have never saved and it scares me. Your Inlaws need to have a wake up call!

[Uniwolf]

Welcome to the Villiage from NW Arkansas, I would call the nearest SS office and see if they have a councler that could help him to make a decision, then see if you can get him to take a cold hard look at his personnal finances minus the wife.

[bookwormpeg]

Wow....he will be getting a wake up call....you can hardly live off ss....and like others said anything over $14,100 they will take $1 for every $2 he makes....his full retirement age is probably 66. They really need a reality check....what about health insurance??? you can't get medicare till you are 65.....that will eat your lunch!! We pay over $1400 for health insurance...a month...more then my ss check....

[Natalia]

$1400 a MONTH for health insurance!!
I <3 Canada! I'd be dying a thousand deaths paying that premium.. No pun intended.

[mombottoo]

62 is the minimum age, what age does he have to be to receive his full benefit amount? If he starts collecting at 62 he is going to be taking a cut when compared to what he would be able to draw at his stated retirement age.

I think if you are under 70 your benefit can end up being taxable if you are working & drawing SS at the same time.

[frugalfranny]

Think you best do some serious reading about Soc. Sec. and since he is so stubborn...........HAVE HIM READ ALONG WITH YOU.

I thought the $ amt. was 13,000 before deducts......but could have been changed.

Also, the $ is recalculated when he reaches the reg. age to draw..........so working will help with that......but start reading on the website..........

This might help..............

Working After Age 62 Can Affect Social Security Payouts - Planning to Retire (usnews.com)

[Miranda]

62 is the minimum age, what age does he have to be to receive his full benefit amount? If he starts collecting at 62 he is going to be taking a cut when compared to what he would be able to draw at his stated retirement age.

I think if you are under 70 your benefit can end up being taxable if you are working & drawing SS at the same time.

At age 62 he'll receive 75%, at age 66 100%

[Miranda]

Holy crap, dude. Please tell me he has a company pension.

Does MIL work? She needs to start. She also needs to be fired from taking care of the finances.

FIL needs to wake up. Today. Only thing worse than having zero saved at age 62 is having zero saved at age 62 and a day. They need a buffer between them n the street.

And youre right, this is a spending issue, not a money issue. The more you make, the more you spend, unless you tell the money what to do. Been there...paying the stupid tax now.

No pension
MIL does work, has been self employed since 1985, so no contribution to SS, before that she worked pt, maybe 5-10 yrs, so the contribution there was not much either.

[Miranda]

Thank u all for your input. I have talked to them until I'm blue in the face. They think only rich people can save, because they have money left over. I tell them over & over again, it's about sacrifice & living under your means. The more $ you have the more you spend.

[Spirit Deer]

I hate to break it to you, but if your MIL is self-employed, she's supposed to be paying DOUBLE Social Security, not none. She is seriously in arrears. I hope she's been paying her income tax on that income in full and on time or she's going to be in pretty deep once the IRS and the state figure out she owes those taxes, plus penalties and interest. And if she's selling to the public, she should be collecting and remitting state sales taxes in a timely manner too, or she could be in deep doodoo for not doing that. The reason SS is double for self-employed people is because there is no employer to contribute.

I would run far and fast from this situation. Direct them to the Social Security office or at least the SS website. Don't get involved. From what you've said, they're not going to listen to a thing you say anyway, so why put yourself in that situation? Whatever you do, do NOT try to fix this for them. They're the only ones who can fix it, and the first step to that is to recognize it needs to be fixed. It doesn't sound like they're facing reality yet.

Good luck.

[Miranda]

[QUOTE=Spirit Deer;1606251]I hate to break it to you, but if your MIL is self-employed, she's supposed to be paying DOUBLE Social Security, not none. She is seriously in arrears. I hope she's been paying her income tax on that income in full and on time or she's going to be in pretty deep once the IRS and the state figure out she owes those taxes, plus penalties and interest. And if she's selling to the public, she should be collecting and remitting state sales taxes in a timely manner too, or she could be in deep doodoo for not doing that. The reason SS is double for self-employed people is because there is no employer to contribute.

I would run far and fast from this situation. Direct them to the Social Security office or at least the SS website. Don't get involved. From what you've said, they're not going to listen to a thing you say anyway, so why put yourself in that situation? Whatever you do, do NOT try to fix this for them. They're the only ones who can fix it, and the first step to that is to recognize it needs to be fixed. It doesn't sound like they're facing reality yet.

Good luck.[QUOTE=Spirit Deer;1606251]


She's good on taxes, she's afraid of the IRS