When it comes to applying for Social Security retirement, we have many possible options. In the United States, the minimum age for retirement is 62, as long as we do not have a disability, which can bring this date forward. Even so, many citizens wait a little longer to retire later.
This option is totally personal and individual, since it depends on the retirement plan that each person has. The problem comes when even with a retirement program in mind we make mistakes that ruin the experience. In most cases these mistakes can be fixed just by being careful and paying attention to what we do.
If you want to have a comfortable retirement you should not let mistakes ruin it. So pay attention to these typical mistakes Americans make before starting Social Security retirement and don’t let them happen to you. Did you have some of these easy-to-fix mistakes in mind?
Mistakes that can ruin your retirement
Social Security benefits depend on several different factors. Failing to control these factors can greatly ruin our retirement. Each monthly check will mean an income in our bank account and it will be the money we have for each month. So make sure this doesn’t ruin your experience. Here are the three most common mistakes that can ruin your retirement:
- Not planning your Social Security check. We’ve already discussed that the check depends on several factors. Those factors are retirement age, salary as a worker and years worked. Getting the biggest possible check is essential to be able to achieve a good retirement. So work for many years, at least 35, at a good salary. And don’t apply for Social Security until 67 to have 100% of the money contributed.
- A retiree without savings is at risk. Not saving during our time as a worker is a huge mistake. We should save as much money as possible so that when it comes time to collect Social Security, we are not 100% dependent on that money. It is not necessary to save a lot of money every month. But it is true that saving some of your salary for 35 years of work can result in a huge amount at the end.
- Not taking Medicare into account. From the age of 65 we can apply for Medicare. If we are already retired, we will get it automatically. However, if we plan to apply for Social Security at age 67, we will have to manually apply for Medicare first. If we don’t apply for Medicare at 65, we will lose a lot of money in medical, so keep that in mind.
If we don’t make these three mistakes we can have a good retirement. Still, remember that getting to the $4,555 a month check is difficult, but not impossible. If we reach such a figure we may not have to keep these three mistakes in mind. However, if we don’t make them, we will have a good retirement.