$Afer Income for Life: Couples May Qualify for up to $150,000 More in Social Security Benefits

By David J. Bartman and Charles J. Bartman

They say money cant buy happiness, but if you save enough of it, youll enjoy a financially secure retirement as long as you liveand so will your spouse.

Charles and David Bartman walk you through retirement planning mistakes to avoid and strategies to implement to enjoy a worry-free retirement. Learn how to:

decide when and how to start withdrawing money from Social Security, pensions and other retirement assets to minimize taxes;
avoid being penalized up to 50 percent of your Social Security benefits by filing at the wrong time;
use safe retirements alternatives that will preserve and grow your retirement assets; and
determine whether your retirement savings are properly allocated in reference to your risk tolerance verses the rewards.

By educating yourself about Social Security options, youll avoid being among the 74 percent of Americans who voluntarily receive reduced income in retirement. Moreover, youll learn other strategies that may prevent you from running out of money in retirement.

Avoid mistakes that can cost you and your loved ones, and make informed decisions that could reward you handsomely in retirement by applying the money-saving strategies in $afer Income for Life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504971713

David J. Bartman

Charles and David Bartman are financial professionals, speakers, authors, and radio talk show hosts. They have the experience to address your unique challenges by presenting you with safe retirement strategies and specific customized instructions to maximize your Social Security benefits. They have counseled hundreds of clients in tax reduction, estate planning, and retirement income planning and have helped clients preserved millions of dollars in retirement assets. They have also shown clients how to collect millions of dollars more in Social Security benefits.

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© 2016 Charles J. Bartman and David J. Bartman All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the authors.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/27/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7172-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7171-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016900120

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Guaranteed Money

Chapter 2 Rule of 100

Chapter 3 Non-Qualified, Qualified, and Roth Accounts

Chapter 4 Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)

Chapter 5 Are Annuities Safe, Guaranteed, and Insured?

Chapter 6 Annuity Myths, Pros, and Cons

Chapter 7 Understanding Annuities

Chapter 8 Social Security Secrets

Chapter 9 Will the New Social Security Laws Affect You?

Chapter 10 Frequently Asked Social Security Questions

Chapter 11 Avoiding Unnecessary or Excessive Taxes

Chapter 12 Avoid Retirement Mistakes That Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars

Glossary

Disclaimer

About the Book

Preface

Reallocating a portion of your portfolio into guaranteed money (safer money) is a way to provide a safer income for life for you and your spouse. This will help establish an added peace of mind and a financially secure retirement that can last as long as you and your spouse live by setting up your own personal pension and receiving an optional lifetime of income.

It’s essential to avoid retirement planning mistakes by using Social Security strategies in coordination with your retirement assets—and if you have one, your pension from your employer—to collect more money and pay less in taxes. Do you know when, how, and where you should start taking distribution from your assets to avoid paying tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary or excessive taxes?

It’s possible to lose 50% of your Social Security benefits if you’re working and file for benefits at the wrong time. Do you know what strategy you should be using and whether you should file now or later?

With what is commonly known as the earnings test, you will forfeit $1 in benefits for every $2 you make over the earnings limit in the years before your full retirement age (FRA), which in 2016 is $15,720. Also the months in the year prior to your FRA $1 of Social Security benefits is deducted for every $3 of earnings over $41,880. Once you reach your FRA, you will receive your full benefit payment regardless of how much you earn but federal and state taxes may apply. For additional information the Social Security Administration website is: www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/rtea.html.

In many cases, Social Security can be the largest and most mismanaged asset you have. About 74% of retirees receive reduced Social Security benefits. Filing for Social Security benefits sounds easy, but for a married couple it can be more complicated than for single people. Mistakes made when filing for benefits can be costly. Over a couple’s lifetime, some estimates claim that as much as $150,000 in benefits could be lost from your Social Security benefits.

Because of the Bipartisan Budget Act passed in November 2015, Social Security will have an impact on many Americans and how they file for benefits. You need to be aware of the Social Security strategies that can help maximize your benefits. The Social Security Administration will make the final determination and will award benefits. Social Security is not taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. If you use Social Security strategies to your benefit, it may be possible to collect more money and reduce or eliminate Social Security taxes. Don’t file for Social Security benefits until you know your options.

Once you’re in or near retirement and you have accumulated retirement assets, any investment mistakes at this stage of your life could devastate your retirement dreams.

If you have an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or some similar retirement account, you need to avoid common retirement mistakes that could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Time will not be on your side. Think about preserving your retirement nest egg. How is your money allocated within your retirement portfolio? Investing a majority of your money in conservative or variable accounts like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and variable annuities is not being safe. You can lose money. A general rule that we use to properly allocate your money is the Rule of 100 (explained in chapter 2) to determine asset diversification for the average investor.

There is what we call the guaranteed money (safer money) as a portion of your assets and the maybe money (market risk) as the other portion of your assets. How much of your retirement money is safe? In retirement you will need two things: income and safety. Guaranteed money as a portion of your portfolio can give you both.

If your advisor is reallocating your assets into stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and the like to be more conservative, this will not assure a better return on your portfolio and cannot eliminate negative returns. Market risk, also known as systematic risk, cannot be diversified away. The portion of your retirement portfolio exposed to this type of risk is what we call maybe money, which comes with no guarantee of making any money.

Introduction

Traditional company-defined benefit plans (pensions) are disappearing quickly. My father has a small pension from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58 in Detroit, Michigan. My mother also had a small pension from Fisher Body, where she assembled door panels. She chose to retire. Her doctor recommended that she take an early retirement because she had developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) brought on by smoking and inhaling fumes from glue used to assemble door panels. In retirement, they depended on their pensions, Social Security, and savings. They avoided debt and enjoyed a simple but comfortable retirement.

Things are quite different for today’s retirees since the disappearance of traditional benefit plans. Another concern is the volatility of the market. Many workers’ retirement accounts lost significant value from the bear market (declining market) in 2008. In October 2008, the Congressional Budget Office revealed that Americans had lost $2 trillion in just 15 months – which took several years for many people to recovered from.¹

If you were in your thirties or forties when this happened, you should have years ahead of you to make up for your losses. But if you’re in your fifties or sixties, time is not on your side. If you are like most people, you’ve worked a lifetime accumulating assets, putting a roof over your head, building your career, and raising a family. It can be very difficult to recover from any losses in or near your retirement years—and more so if you’re already retired with no income from an employer. If the market crashes again like it did in 2008, the sequence of return (market volatility) in a bear market could have a disastrous effect on your retirement nest egg.

This could mean one of two things if you haven’t already retired: (1) Continue to work and delay your anticipated retirement. (2) Retire with less money, stay home with your TV remote, and hope your money lasts as long as you do. We, along with many others, believe that we’re poised for another major correction. Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball to determine when it will happen, but it can happen! When you retire, you don’t want to worry about going back to work to support your lifestyle if the market crashes again like it did in 2000 and 2008. If you work during retirement, you want to do it because you enjoy doing it, not because you have to.

Hopefully people have learned what could go wrong from