Ask Larry

Am I Getting The Correct Amount?

I started to recieve Social Security (SS) when I turned 70 on 2/4/18 (born 2/4/49) receiving $3,083.10 and now receive, with one increase, every 2nd Wednesday of each month, $3,249.50. I was told by 3 different people at SS, 3 different amounts. The last person I spoke to a year ago (4th person) agreed I was getting the correct amount. I want to know if I am getting the correct amount, have an expert do my taxes so I am paying as little as possible in taxes, if I should convert all my retirement accounts to Roth and when and finally take out a QLAC, best time given the inflation and interest rates going up. Please advise. I trust you given your 2 excellent books I read covering SS.

Hi. Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings, so there's no way for me to know if your benefit rate is correct without knowing your full yearly Social Security covered earnings history. Also, you say that you started drawing benefits at age 70, but if you were born on 2/4/1949 then you would have reached age 70 in February 2019 rather than 2018. You may want to consider using the benefit calculator included in our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to check on the accuracy of your benefit rate, but you'll need to have access to your Social Security earnings record to get accurate results.

My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, so I can't answer your question about your retirement accounts.

Best, Jerry

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Posted: 
Apr 14 2022 - 3:37pm
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