Today I’m going to talk to you about flying solo, and I don’t mean in an airplane or driving by yourself. I’m talking about flying solo when it comes to your social security and the strategy that you take when it comes to drawing your social security in retirement. So, what do you do if you’re single? You don’t have an ex-husband to draw off of, a deceased husband or wife to draw off of. You don’t have a spouse to coordinate your social security with. You are literally on your own. I like to refer to it as the Yo-Yo plan. I mean, you’re on your own, so what do you do? Well, the one place you cannot go to for advice is the Social Security Office. You can go for information, but you cannot go to the Social Security office for official advice. Here’s what I mean.

They’re not going to sit down and say, “Oh, you’re single. How can we help you? You have this choice that married people don’t have. You have this choice that other people, if they’ve been divorced or if they’ve been widowed, they have that you don’t have.” You’re not going to be given your options. At Mosley Wealth Management, all our advisors train through the National Social Security Advisors Association, so we train with them so that we know what we’re talking about. When it comes to social security, whether you’re married, whether you’re divorced, whether you’re widowed, or whether you’re single, we can help you.

The first thing you need to realize if you’re single is timing. Timing is crucial for you because you are by yourself. Now, if you’re married, you can play off the timing. Maybe you turn on both social securities. If you’re divorced, maybe you turn on yours or you play off of an ex partner’s Social security. If you’re widowed, maybe you can turn on a survivor benefit and then turn on yours at a later date. If you’re single, Hey, I don’t have to tell you anything new. If you’re single and you’ve been single all your life, you’re out there on your own rowing the boat. I mean, when you row on this side, there’s nobody on the other side. You’ve got to take the row and go back to the other side. Same thing through is true with timing on social security. Taking that Social Security at the right time is even more pertinent for you because if you make a mistake, you are on your own and you only have one paddle.

The second thing I would bring up, is that it might be more advantageous to you, all other things being equal, for you to wait to turn on your social security – even possibly until the age of 70. From 62 to 70, your social security payout amount goes up 8% every single year. Particularly if you’re working and you’re under your full retirement age, because you’ll encounter earning limits. In 2025, you’ve got a limit of $23,400 that you can make. Otherwise, every $2 over that, you’ve got to pay back a dollar of social security. So you really want to be careful for that one if you’re single. So it’s really important that you consider delaying turning on your social security, until after you hit full retirement age, and even possibly up until age 70. The longer you wait, the more benefit you’ll get. Lemme say it again. The longer you wait, the more you get. What’s the negative?

Well, the longer you wait. If you wait a year, that’s one less year you’ll get at the end. When’s the end? Nobody knows, but it’s one year. At the end of your life, you’re not going to get paid, but you’re going to get paid for all of those subsequent years, an extra 8% by waiting a year. So, you may want to wait a year, wait two years, wait three years or wait till 70. That may be part of your timing.

Now, let’s talk about something else that’s a big factor and that’s longevity or your health situation. If you’re a person that’s had various major health issues, then you want to be careful. You might want to turn on Social Security sooner rather than later if you have any kind of disease or ailment or anything that might cause you to have a shortened lifetime.

But if you’re in your sixties and you’re still taking care of both parents who are in their eighties or nineties, that’s called longevity. Now, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to live forever like your parents have, but it may mean that you’ve got longevity in your genes. Only you can decide this, and it’s a rolling of the dice and a little bit of a gamble, but how healthy you are is a big factor in whether you should turn it on or not. Number two, how long have your parents lived? Your brothers and sisters lived? If you’re the youngest one and they’re 15, 20 years older than you and they’re in great health and they’re still right of their mind, then you may want to consider waiting as long as you can, working as long as you can so that you have income and waiting as long as you can so your Social Security benefit can continue to grow.

And a related thing, if you’re still working at 65, 66, 67, all the way up till 70 and not drawing social, not only are you building a larger social security payout, but generally most people at that age are building a larger retirement fund. Or at least they’re not beginning to go to their retirement nest egg and draw from it in their mid-sixties. They’re waiting until they’re 70. All of those are positive if longevity’s in your genes or you’re really, really healthy – Who would’ve thought that being healthy or living a long time could be a potential financial negative? But here we are.

Another thing to consider is taxes. Now, if you’re single and you’ve been single most of your life, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve lived with those filing single tax brackest and you’ve not been able to get those larger numbers and those larger amounts in those brackets of 22% or 12% as the married filing jointly people qualify for.

So you face this all along. Well, guess what? You’re going to face taxes on Social Security as well, and you’re going to face larger taxes sooner because of the tax brackets for single people. Now, this is a punch that you cannot avoid, but you can at least know it’s coming. And be ready for it, because in retirement, those amounts for single people where you push your social security into that taxable level at 85% according to your regular rate, may bring about taxes sooner on Social Security because you are single. It’s just out there. It’s the way the rules are. You just got to know the rules and you’ve got to have somebody help you negotiate that so that you know what they are before you find yourself in the middle of all of them.

So do you want to go claim early just because of fear? Some people say, “Well, I want that extra money so I can put it away and save for retirement.” If you’re going to live a long time and you’re healthy and you’re going to face taxes on that Social Security, then remember if you take it earlier and it’s going to drive you even into a higher income tax bracket, maybe claiming early is not the way to go. But I’ll tell you what is the way to go. You need a plan. Social Security is a monumental part of what you’re going to have for income in retirement. Social Security is not all there is. If you’re single, you probably have a nest egg. That nest egg is an IRA or a 401k or an inheritance and all of these other things that you might have must be considered.

I’ve said it before that Social Security is like the rim of the puzzle. You need to sort of get that in place, but there’s a lot. You get that rim in place and it’s not time to quit. You’ve got all these pieces that still need to go together in your plan. Same way with a retirement plan, you need someone to help you. Most people are retiring for the first time. Hey, this is the first time you’ve ever been in the sixties, and so you’re retiring for the first time! Maybe you need to walk through it with somebody else who can give you some guidance and help build a retirement blueprint so that all of the pieces of your retirement fit together. You might find out that with the other pieces, you might be able to wait on turning on your Social Security, and it might be best for you to wait because of taxes, income, and all these other things – and still be able to get that larger amount of Social Security.

We want you to be secure. We want you to be a member of what we call the S.W.A.N. Club to be able to “Sleep Well At Night,” and if you’re not sleeping well at night, there’s nobody to turn to. If you’re single, you’re out there by yourself. Let’s talk. We want to help you if we possibly can. Hey, I hope this was helpful. If you want to see more about how we help our clients, go to our website, www.mosleywealthmanagement.com. And if you want more information about what we’ve talked about today, check out our various YouTube videos. Until next week, I’ll see you!