Social Security

[Ickie]

I am now old enough and on my birthday (Dec 23), last month I called the 800 # and made an appointment for them to give me a call dating for today Jan 12, 2016 at 9 am to sign up.

They called at 9:04 am, and this only took about 10 minutes.
I was told I would be getting a check next week and every month there after on the 4 week of the month.

wow this is fast,
I was led to believe this would take months and the interview would be an hour or so.

I'll give an A+ for the SS

 

[SSI01]

I had the same experience. Applied at 62 since I am convinced the well is going to run dry before I'm 65, however, it's a lot harder for someone in the govt to mess with the benefits of someone who's already drawing them than it is to change things for folks who HAVEN'T already started to draw them. Just ask the younger folks who've been told in the recent past their retirement age will climb to 70 or older.

Yes, it's very easy to sign up for SS benefits and the office here said something similar, I could have done it over the phone, etc. I wanted to actually look a human being in the eye and get a name or two while going through the process. While they do make it easy to sign up, by automating everything as much as possible - they also automate the mistakes that can lead to complications in the future vis-a-vis your account. I always believed, and still do, that you want a live, real-time in-person check on your account so everything is set up as it should be, and your "what ifs" and rumor-control questions can be dealt with immediately. I don't like surprises, good or bad, and certainly not with funds.

Oh, by the way - belated congratulations on making it!

 

[Ickie]

By me calling and talking to a human in December, they had everything in front of them this morning, all I had to do is confirm and give them my checking account # so they could deposit my checks.

Also the person I spoke to this morning was from here in St Pete fl office, my now home town.

So I would guess there is no mistakes.

 

[n4gix]

My SS pitiful paltry pittance arrives in my checking account somewhere around the 23rd each month... sometimes up to a week later...

 

[Milton Shupe]

Retired at 65 for 4.5 years now. Never had an issue with SS or Medicare. It's all good.

 

[oldmsgt]

Welcome to the club!

 

[WND]

I retired December 31st 2012 however 3 months prior to that (as it was suggested to me) I had notified them that I was doing so and that I would like my first check to arrive in January 2013..

Well, I did not know that they hold back a month on sending checks out so my first check didn't arrive until February !!

Since then I have had really no issue's to speak of until last fall - which I in turn wrote them a nice letter explaining a few things and they in turn very nicely rectified the issue in about 3 weeks !!

So I would have to say ALL has been / is good with me so far !! (except for 2016 there was no 'cost of living' increase)

Bill

 

[Navy Chief]

Ditto on welcoming you to the club! I am a new member as well, as my third Soc. Sec. direct deposit goes into my account tomorrow. When I initiated the process, I did so at the Soc. Sec. office here in Pensacola. The employee was extremely nice, and went out of his way to ask all of my questions.

Quite a exception to most govt. agencies I have dealt with. NC

 

[AussieMan]

Good luck with your annual COL increase.

In Australia we have a "Conservative" Government that is a cross between your Republicans and Tea Party. At the moment they are on their "Summer break" but it has not stopped them from attacking the disadvantaged like us aged pensioners.

 

[dvj]

Indeed, congrats. Don't wait till age 72 to take SS as some suggest. In fact, there are a lot of recommendations to take it at 62 and bank it if you don't need it. The delta between what you can get now per month vs. the monthly rate 10 years from now will take many years to reach break even. Assuming you can put some of it away into other investments.

 

[Navy Chief]

Indeed, congrats. Don't wait till age 72 to take SS as some suggest. In fact, there are a lot of recommendations to take it at 62 and bank it if you don't need it. The delta between what you can get now per month vs. the monthly rate 10 years from now will take many years to reach break even. Assuming you can put some of it away into other investments.

Yep, I started my benefits at 62 because I need the extra income now, and who knows when my time is up??

I want at least some of the money back that I was forced to pay all those years! NC

 

[deKoven]

Hmm, well; I was one of those who looked at things and signed up at age 62. Walked in off the street and was done in less than 10 mins. My check arrives pretty much on time (exception; holidays where all lines up) and is direct deposited. Have had no probs at all, 'cept of course, it ain't big enuf.

 

[Navy Chief]

Hmm, well; I was one of those who looked at things and signed up at age 62. Walked in off the street and was done in less than 10 mins. My check arrives pretty much on time (exception; holidays where all lines up) and is direct deposited. Have had no probs at all, 'cept of course, it ain't big enuf.

Never is. Combined with my Navy pension, I ain't exactly going on exotic vacations! NC

 

[gaucho_59]

Amen to that!

Yep, I started my benefits at 62 because I need the extra income now, and who knows when my time is up??

I want at least some of the money back that I was forced to pay all those years! NC

Back in 73 when I was a young Captain... myself and a couple of buddies checked out figures and calculated that staying in beyond 20 years wouldn't
start being an advantage until you turned 84! So I retired at 22 and a half... as soon as I was 62... same calculations... so I started collecting early SS...
I am now 78 (retired 1 April 85) and still kicking... and better than a million bucks ahead of the game...
So, IMHO, get it while you can and enjoy bennies and good years... you never know when you'll croak... and as an old Argentinian Tango lyrics say:
"No hay mortajas con bolsillos"... (i.e.: "there ain't shrouds with pockests") or the US vernacular... "You can't take it with you"...
Besides that... cruises are no fun in a wheelchair...

 

[av8erjm]

retirement, HA

been retired for 10 years, gov't pension every year had a COLA to match my health ins premium, wife's been on SS and same thing COLA match the medicare premium. This year got a 2 notifications from OMB saying no COLA this year, 2 or 3 weeks later I got a notification from the same OMB saying they were raising the medicare premiums from a 104.90 to 121.80 out of each of our gov't stipend a month so we got a pay cut of 30+ dollars to spend on food etc. Asked my supplemental ins guy why so much, he says you can thank Obamacare for that. Now I'm feeling all warm n' fuzzy inside

 

[dvj]

been retired for 10 years, gov't pension every year had a COLA to match my health ins premium, wife's been on SS and same thing COLA match the medicare premium. This year got a 2 notifications from OMB saying no COLA this year, 2 or 3 weeks later I got a notification from the same OMB saying they were raising the medicare premiums from a 104.90 to 121.80 out of each of our gov't stipend a month so we got a pay cut of 30+ dollars to spend on food etc. Asked my supplemental ins guy why so much, he says you can thank Obamacare for that. Now I'm feeling all warm n' fuzzy inside

I read yesterday that people were frantically spending $19,000,000 per hour into the Power Ball scam. Makes me feel there is plenty of money to fund anything - healthcare, educations, SS.

 

[gman5250]

I signed up at 62 for a number of reasons.

First, I had the option to take an early retirement package from a union job I had in my twenties. At 57, I contacted the union and they told me that I'd be waaayyyy smarter to wait until I was 62 because the benefit would be substantially higher. When I hit 62, I applied and was told that the fund was severely depleted and that I'd only get half what I would have gotten, had I taken the earlier number. Net result was five years of lost benefit and a 50% depreciation until I finally vapor lock...or the fund goes belly up...which ever occurs first.

When it came time for SS, I signed up the first nano second I turned 62.

Contributing data to the decision:

SS is an unfunded liability, not counted in the National Debt numbers or any other barometers of economic health. The demographic bubble of "Baby Boomers" is just about to hit prime time, which means that this will be the largest "entitlement" the planet has ever seen.

I look at the skyrocketing National Debt, the clinically brain dead GDP for the US, the recently approved budget that breaks all records for government spending, tanking markets in Japan and China who have their own demographic bubbles, the Baltic Dry Index, Container to Ship Indexes, absolutely surreal market fundamentals, Quantitative Easing un-ending, the massive bank/economic failures worldwide, the EU, austerity and the tidal wave of new welfare recipients we are expected to feed, clothe and house, and I arrive at a fairly straight forward personal strategy.

I don't exactly have the highest confidence that my money that went for all those years will be coming back in my direction. There is no one working to fund the 38.4 million Americans now arriving at the SS threshold, and no one on the Hill with the huevos to point to the fact that there is a tiny little problem looming beyond the bond and derivatives bubbles.

All of that said, it seemed prudent to un-retire and think seriously about providing an income stream that I am in direct control of. I'm working diligently on that and stocking up on dried food...

IMHO

 

[dvj]

Yep, I started my benefits at 62 because I need the extra income now, and who knows when my time is up??

I want at least some of the money back that I was forced to pay all those years! NC

We've been discussing this at length lately. The gov't payout is roughly the same amount anyway. Lower monthly payments if you start at 62 taken over a longer period, higher monthly payments over a shorter expected lifespan at age 72. Annuity! Doh! It's good to know that my thoughts about taking SS at age 62 are in alignment with a lot of folks.