Read Get What Yours Revised Updated The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security The Get What Yours Series Laurence J Kotlikoff Philip Moeller Paul Solman 9781501144769 Books

Product details Series The Get What's Yours Series Hardcover 384 pages Publisher Simon & Schuster; Revised, Updated ed. edition (May 3, 2016) Language English ISBN-10 9781501144769 ISBN-13 978-1501144769 ASIN 1501144766

Get What Yours Revised Updated The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security The Get What Yours Series Laurence J Kotlikoff Philip Moeller Paul Solman 9781501144769 Books Reviews

• Given the choice of learning 3000 pages of Social Security law and tens of thousands of regulations, or having two front teeth pulled without anesthetic, most would choose the latter, if only because it's over quicker. Get What's Yours understands this. It presents the basic background, basic facts, basic tips, and even the basic SSA form, in an environment of real scenarios. The asides are cheerful or acidic, as appropriate, and it mitigates the confusion by constantly hammering at the basics. At first I thought it annoying, but slowing down, I realized I needed to see it all again, in action, to help it sink in. It also means you can go right to the section that concerns you, because the foundation points will be there (again).
  
  This book is necessary for three reasons Social Security is not intuitive, and sometimes makes no sense at all. Two, Americans act against their best interests, leaving all kinds of money on the table. Three, there is usually a "however" with Social Security rules.
  
  Worse, Social Security is now up to three million requests every week, but Congress keeps cutting back budget, staff, hours and whole offices. Combine that with the complexity factor, and the authors conclude you cannot trust what Social Security advises. Great.
  
  The way we go after Social Security says two things Americans are poorer than they pretend, and they don't know how much they're giving up. Only about 3% wait until age 70 to claim, where the figures show a dramatic, peak difference (76%) over claims at 62, when the biggest group files - for the least amount offered. As an aside, there is an annual survey that always says the same thing nearly 50% of Americans couldn't raise an emergency $2500 in 30 days, not from savings or even from friends and family. Nearly half of Americans simply cannot postpone Social Security.
  
  The most important tip is to wait until 70 before taking benefits. The next most important tip is to register at 66, but at the same time suspend benefits until 70. This not only allows your rate to grow 8% a year for four years, it also allows your spouse to claim spousal benefits (half of yours) when s/he reaches 66 and let her/his own benefits continue to grow until age 70. There are a lot of ifs ands and buts, so the book becomes a tremendous resource. The answers are clear and cogent.
  
  As a consultant who works in different environments all the time, I developed a saying that I could play by anybody's rules, as long as I knew what they were. Get What's Yours tells you what they are.
  
  David Wineberg
• I really needed the information in this book. Although I tell myself I didn't need it repeated four or five times over, I probably did. Each time I read a familiarly phrased core principle, I had a more thorough understanding. The authors apologize for the repetitiveness here, but repeat themselves they do. Perhaps they're trying to make sure those of us who have historically made bad financial decisions get the Social Security choices right. (And that is the main reason I am reading this book now, at this point in my life, as a 50-something. Having failed to save any money, I can at least gain a good understanding of the benefits of my fall-back retirement plan which is Social Security alone, without embellishment.) So be prepared for some not-so-subliminal behavior modification efforts tucked into these pages. Given the numbers of us who act impulsively, according to the authors' statistics, perhaps we do need to be whacked with this information repeatedly and hard.
  
  This book is also for people who think they know everything there is to know about Social Security choices. The authors spend a great deal of time debunking lovingly held misconceptions that could cost you a lot of money. They also point out that the standard advice handed out by Social Security workers on the phone and online is usually wrong and there is no liability on their part for being wrong and there's no recourse on your part (short of paying back the benefit) if you get it wrong because of Social Security's own advice.
  
  The authors also point out that we all think we're smarter than we are. So you can drop this tendency into your next insufferably boring lunchtime conversation with your much dumber colleagues -- it's called 'illusory superiority.' Makes you sound smart when you say it, doesn't it?
  
  Illusory superiority is especially acute for all those would-be geniuses who think they'll take Social Security early and invest in the stock market to beat the system. Those are the really dumb folks. This book explains, two or three times, why this is so.
  
  The book is conversational, but the subject matter is dense. Only once did this tendency to try and be accessible cause confusion. This sentence stumped me momentarily "You've been divorced for 2 or more years, or your ex has filed for their retirement benefit." Well, we would say this in conversation without a problem, but the writer meant to say that my "ex has filed for his retirement benefit." Make no mistake, though. I learned that this is a carefully edited book and a minor problem like noun/pronoun agreement is practically non-existent. The authors are serious people, trying to make a bureaucratic behemoth like the SSA understandable to those of us who would rather not know. Women, especially, will benefit from the information in this book and, if your husband buys it and reads it, you should read it, too. Best to check that the decisions made by one spouse will ultimately benefit both. If that isn't possible, then there's a conversation that needs to take place.
  
  The bottom line is that this book is probably more than necessary. It's essential to getting the Social Security choice -- sometimes choices -- right and at the right time. With budget cuts for staff, we are never going to get the best advice from the phone people employed by Social Security. You need to find out what's best for you. You will also learn where the best calculators are (AARP has one, the authors have one), when not to get married, why it probably won't matter if you get divorced after 10 years as long as you don't remarry too soon, how not to unwittingly cause Social Security to "deem" that you have asked for two benefits at once when you really only intended to tap into one.
  
  Learning the lessons in this book and making notes that can be checked as each important birthday approaches gave me a headache. But, for once, I didn't put it off too long. And we have to figure this stuff out sometime; we have to exercise a little impulse control; and, we're dumber than we look. I'm off to grab some Tylenol. And my notes.
• Since I am approaching FRA, I ordered this book hoping to learn something I don't know. But all it does is provide information that in my opinion is common knowledge, i.e. wait as long as possible to collect preferably until 70 to get the maximum benefit. Am I missing something? Is there some kind of SS secret that I've missed? UPDATE 07/13/15 Since I have finally finished the book, I summarize the advice in a couple of sentences 1) if you cannot collect on your spouse's benefits wait till 70 if possible. 2) if you can, collect on your spouse's benefits upon reaching FRA and wait till 70 to collect on your own benefits. You would get the maximum benefits if you do these two things. THAT'S IT IN A NUTSHELL. No need to buy the book. UPDATE 10/05/2016 - I just finished reading 6 Million Dollar Retiree by Arthur V. Prosper. It has a chart of when you should collect based on your marital status, etc. and it has much better information too for retirement planning.