All United States citizens are eligible to apply for Social Security retirement benefits subject to a few conditions. Among those conditions are working a minimum of 10 years and turning 62 in order to be eligible to apply. On the other hand, it is possible for citizens who meet these goals in a borderline manner to get a check that is too small.
Applying for Early Retirement Age at 62 means losing a lot of Social Security money every month. The final check is reduced by 30% if we opt for this retirement option. Thus, a check of $1,000 a month becomes only $700. The reduction in the amount of money is considerable, so you have to plan everything carefully.
Also, working for only 10 years will help us get 40 work credits, but that will grant a very low check as a retiree. It will be a far cry from the maximum check of $4,558 that you only get by applying for Social Security at age 70. However, many seniors want their retirement at 62.
How to live with an Early Retirement Age Social Security check?
When deciding when to retire, we can choose to apply for the Early Retirement Age Social Security check, but it has consequences. As we have already mentioned, the retirement check is reduced by 30%. This means that, financially, we have to take into account many aspects.
To be able to live without fear of no longer having money to pay our bills, we can follow the following tips:
- Save as much money as possible. This advice seems very obvious, but not everyone does it. Saving even just a little bit of our monthly salary means that when it comes time to get the retirement, we will not be 100% dependent on the Social Security check.
- Create a monthly budget. Both when we are working and when we start to retire. Having a monthly budget that helps us not to spend more money than necessary is key to not going under financially.
- Maximize the Social Security check. While we may not be able to get the biggest check for the 30% reduction with Early Retirement Age, we can maximize as much as possible. To do this, we must work for 35 years before retirement and have a high salary in the working years.
- Passive income. There is no better way to increase our monthly budget than by having passive income. Whether it’s renting out a room in the house or selling things we don’t need, having passive income is always a good recommendation for Social Security retirement time.
So forget about sinking financially thanks to these tips we can use before applying for retirement. And remember that the maximum Social Security check is only achieved with a retirement at age 70.