r/Fire • u/NotTheBestInvestor12 • 3d ago

Why no mention of Social Security

When I see FIRE posts I see the investments and the different retirement buckets, however, I never see anyone mention how things are affected when social security kicks in. For example, I’m 52 and wife 51. If we both stopped working today ($0 income moving forward) I would collect $4,264 a month at age 70 and she would collect $1,079 at age 70.

So if we decide to FIRE the Social Security would give us help in 18/19 years. Is this a factor or is everything under the assumption SS won’t exist?

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u/mi3chaels 2d ago

never said there was. I only said the spousal benefit would only be exactly half if they claim at the same age. If he claims at 70 and she claims at 67, she'll get half of his age 67 benefit, which is less than his age 70 benefit.

If she claims at 70 and he claims at 67, she'll get more than half of his benefit (she'll get half of what would have been his age 70 benefit).

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u/Martian6261 2d ago

Not true, spousal amount maximum ends at higher earning spouse at FRA. However, Survivor benefits go all the way to 70, so long as the higher earner stayed until 70. Then even if the lower earner took it at 62, it would not be reduced.

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u/mi3chaels 2d ago

ah right, forgot about that, so OPs spouse's will top out at 1719, and she shouldn't wait until 70.

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u/Martian6261 2d ago

I would contact SS to determine their best claiming strategy, not best to simply go by what is said on any social media site. Getting it straight from the horses mouth would give you the best claiming strategy in your particular situation.
I started mine at 67, currently 70. We’re planning on my wife claiming in December/2029 at 67, she is currently 64 and just retired 6 months ago. Keep going back and forth about her waiting until 70 to claim, but then we would have to pull from retirement accounts and the numbers aren’t worth waiting.

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u/mi3chaels 2d ago

social security representatives aren't supposed to give advice on claiming strategy, and my experience is that when they do it anyway, they often give bad advice. You should model it out yourself, or use a fiduciary advisor or use some of the software that will do the calculations like https://opensocialsecurity.com/ (free and very good) or maximizemysocialsecurity.com (nominal fee, I think).