USA-Social Security

[E185640]

Does anyone have experience with the effect of checking out for 3-4 years to cruise and social security payout at time of retirement?

My question is not political in nature. I am assuming (maybe incorrectly) it will still be there after paying in for 30+ years.

[Nicholson58]

Make an appointment to visit a SS office with your concerns. The short answer is they never loose you. There are time and age related issues you may need to address to avid penalties and to receive payments. You may be able to do this on line.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by E185640

Does anyone have experience with the effect of checking out for 3-4 years to cruise and social security payout at time of retirement?

I "checked" out at 56 and still have 2 years before I can collect SS.

Not sure of what your question is. If it is about how it will effect your SS you can go the SS website and there are calculators you can play with. For me it was that if I worked 6 more years I was going to get $58/mo more than if I just stopped working.

[keepondancin]

You can go online with SS.gov, or something like that to get most questions answered. SS is based on a certain number of top earning years. I cruised for 10 years, my early 40's to early 50's. Hurricane season I came back and worked for a few months so I could continue. I don't think it had a huge effect on the payment, because I had a few good years before, and a few after. I did start early SS when the economy crashed, there was no construction work, and my late wife was having some struggles. It takes about 14 years to start loosing money if you start SS early. To me, it was worth it, I was able to be with my wife as issues became more of a problem.

Do it, you can always make more money, you can't make more time.

[Dogscout]

From the Social Security web site.

You must earn at least 40 Social Security credits to qualify for Social Security benefits. You earn Social Security credits when you work and pay Social Security taxes.

The number of credits does not affect the amount of benefits you receive. It only determines if you are eligible or not. You do not get extra benefits for earning more than the minimum number of credits.

We cannot pay benefits to you if you don’t have enough credits. We use the amount of credits you’ve earned to determine your eligibility for retirement or disability benefits, as well as your family’s eligibility for survivors benefits when you die.

I started paying into SS when I was in college and I reached 40 credits before I retired at 52. Im not sure if its one credit per year, you should check that.

[steffan]

I haven't pulled the plug yet, but plan to in four-ish years at 55. There is a lot of detailed explanation of the impact of non-earning years in this post.
https://www.kitces.com/blog/calculat...ly-retirement/

There is a link in there towards the end of the article to the highly detailed calculator from the SS admin.

[Statistical]

Not sure what you are asking? If you are asking if there is some minimum residency requirement to keep getting social security payments after retirement then the answer is no. You can spend 100% of your time outside the US and it has zero effect on your SS payments. You can even renounce your US citizenship and/or acquire citizenship in another country and it has zero effect on your SS payments.

SS is earned and assuming you qualify (sufficient work for 40 quarters) there is nothing in retirement you can do to "lose it" short of being incarcerated.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by E185640

Does anyone have experience with the effect of checking out for 3-4 years to cruise and social security payout at time of retirement?

My question is not political in nature. I am assuming (maybe incorrectly) it will still be there after paying in for 30+ years.

Your eligibility is not affected by your going off cruising.

If you retire and start collecting social security, going cruising does not affect you at all. You just get the money while you are away.

If go cruising before you are at retirement age and work fewer years it will decrease the benefit amount when you do start.

Social security is based on the highest 35 years of income. Working a few additional years at a high wage level has a big impact on the benefit. If your best years are already behind you though, then it would not affect your benefit amount.

If you have reached retirement age and go cruising without starting to collect social security your benefit amount will be bigger when you do start collecting, could be quite a lot bigger.

[capt jgw]

[QUOTE= there is nothing in retirement you can do to "lose it" short of being incarcerated.[/QUOTE]
Well, moving to North Korea would do it, but that would be like being incarcerated anyway. They have a list of countries you cannot move to and still collect. Most of them you don't want to see, Cuba being the only one I'd ever want to go to. If you did go there, I think you'd be eligible again if you returned, but not sure.

[zeehag]

social security doesnt care where you travel. just do it.. your bank will receive the income for ye.. you remove it and use it..make arrangements with your bank so you arenot cut off in strange locations.

[denverd0n]

If you are getting to Social Security age, do not forget about Medicare. You MUST sign up when you turn 65, even if you are still employed and have insurance. Otherwise, you get penalized; your premiums, when you finally do get Medicare, will be more.

[hpeer]

I think he is asking how much his payment will be decreased if he has non-contributing years.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

If you are getting to Social Security age, do not forget about Medicare. You MUST sign up when you turn 65, even if you are still employed and have insurance. Otherwise, you get penalized; your premiums, when you finally do get Medicare, will be more.

That's for Medicare B. A has no premium. When I turned 65 I was still working and applied without talking to HR first. When I did talk to them they said I should not have applied since we had an insurance plan where the employer deposits money into your medical account at the be beginning of the year. That $500 deposit became taxable as I was no longer eligible for that kind of insurance plan due to being on Medicare. But hey, the tax on $500 was only about $60 and I got way more benefit than that being on two plans.