One Social Security mistake is silently draining retirement accounts—here's what you need to know.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00One of the big mistakes that people make with Social Security is to claim early.
00:04The earliest age at which you can claim Social Security is age 62.
00:08And that's when you'll get the reduced benefit.
00:12And that reduced benefit is for the rest of your life.
00:15And so I think oftentimes people say, well, I'm going to claim Social Security at age 62
00:19because it's my money or Social Security is going away.
00:23So I might as well claim it while I can.
00:25And those are actually the wrong reasons to claim Social Security.
00:29One of the things that you want to think about when you're claiming Social Security is,
00:32how can I, thinking about, especially if you're in a household,
00:36how can I think about creating the largest benefit I can for my surviving spouse,
00:42especially if you're in a couple?
00:44And one of the things that happens oftentimes is the highest wage earner will claim Social
00:48Security benefits without regard to their surviving spouse, who may be the lower wage
00:51earner.
00:52And oftentimes what you want to do is to make sure that the surviving spouse receives the
00:57highest possible benefit.
00:59One of the things that we know in this country is that about 10% of widows in this country
01:04live in poverty.
01:06And one way to sort of avoid that from happening is to make sure that you're claiming Social
01:11Security at the latest age possible that makes sense for you and your spouse, so that if
01:16you should pass on, the benefit that your survivor receives is the highest possible.