Your Social Security Playbook: The Levers You Control

Roger Whitney explains six levers that can influence Social Security benefits: reviewing your earnings record, choosing when to claim, managing retirement income, reconsidering an early claim, considering where you live, and coordinating spousal or survivor benefits. The episode emphasizes that the best claiming strategy depends on each person’s priorities, resources, and desired outcome.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN PODCAST

• (00:00) Roger introduces the Social Security series and explains that this episode focuses on the factors individuals can control.

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

• (02:52) Roger walks through the six Social Security levers, including earnings history, claiming age, retirement income, application withdrawal, state taxation, and spousal coordination.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

• (31:08) Planning for Social Security uncertainty: Roger responds to Turner, who asks how to model future benefits given uncertainty about possible changes to Social Security.
• (36:25) Coordinating benefits for spouses with different earnings: Roger examines whether a higher earner should delay benefits while the lower earner claims earlier.
• (45:27) Claiming benefits when retirement assets are growing: Roger discusses a listener’s decision to claim Social Security before age 70 because withdrawals from pre-tax accounts would otherwise be needed and how a spouse’s early claiming decision could affect future spousal and survivor benefits.

SMART SPRINT

• (49:14) Review your retirement plan, identify the Social Security levers you control, and compare alternative claiming strategies with a “what-if” scenario.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

• (50:15) Roger shares a personal story about his daughter and a listener’s positive experience with her work.

REFERENCES

• Social Security Administration — Social Security Statement and earnings record
• Social Security Administration — Social Security Benefits Calculators
• Dinkytown — Social Security Benefits Taxation Calculator
• AARP — State Taxation Of Social Security Benefits
• Rock Retirement with Roger Whitney — YouTube channel
• Submit a Question for Roger
• Sign up for The Noodle