For each year before your full retirement age, you lose a hundred dollars a month, so I will be getting 200 less per month than I would if I waited. BUt, I don't think my mother has two years left to live, I do have help during the day while I'm at work, but I feel I am the better caregiver and should be there. Everyone tells me to keep working, but I feel sad that money needs to take precedence over my sweet mother. The economy scares me in that the cost of everything keeps risiging terribly and when I'm older the extra money could make a huge difference in quality of life. I need advice on my options.
Is there a compromise possible? Could you work fewer hours, spend more time with Mom, and still have more income when you do retire? Is there any possibility that you could do some of your work from home?
I, too, hate it that money has to take precendence. But money translates into quality of life, and being able to pay your own way, and it cannot be ignored..
You might want to think about this when you are considering retiring early and living off social security.
When it comes to Social Security, the majority of new retirees are no longer getting what they paid for.
In a trend that's only projected to get worse, retirees from the middle-class on up are cashing checks that are smaller than the ones they wrote to the government. For the first time since the program's inception, only people in the lowest income brackets are currently receiving more in benefits than they paid out in taxes over the course of their careers, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Read more: https://www.agingcare.com/News/retirees-receives-less-in-social-secuirty-152407.htm
imho delaying the SS benefit is always the better choice financially as SS both for the benefit amount and the cost of living increase that is based on your benefit $. But only you can decide if whether setting your SS at the lowest rate by taking it at 62 and being with family trumps the financial. I think if you wait to file at age 66 your benefit check is about 25% bigger that what you would get at 62 and even bigger if you wait to 70.
There is a website that's good on this issue: www.livingto100.com. You can imput your info both on financial and health stuff to get an idea what your lifespan is and the SS payout.
Perchance could you get instead get a 'survivor benefit" based on your husbands or exDH's work/SS record? He could do a "file & suspend" if he is still working, this seems to be really good if he is planning on working to age 70 or beyond and the younger wife can get the lower age SS @ 62 and then later on after he dies get the much higher benefit based on what he got when he finally retired. This file & suspend can work for children too - we have friends who wives are younger and the kids get SS benefit based on the older dad as they are dependent minors.
Best of luck, none of this is simple.
I would definitely wait, if your health is good, to retire. It is sad that money has to make the decisions. But no one will take care of you, if you do not look our for yourself. But, in the end NO ONE can make the tough decision that you have before you. Blessings.
For someone near retirement, as lightrider is, it probably isn't very important that promtion opportunities may be reduced.
Family leave is a good solution for some, but if you need ongoing income to get by, not working at all and getting no pay might not be as suitable as working reduced hours and having at least some pay coming in. That option is not always available, of course.