Seven Smart Reasons To DELAY Social Security

Social Security isn’t a “pick a date and hope” decision, it’s a lifetime income lever that can change your retirement and your spouse’s future. We’ve heard all the noise: claim at 62, Social Security is going broke, take it and run. We slow it down and replace the rumors with rules, math, and planning you can actually use.

I’m Brad Pistol, and I explain why Social Security behaves like one of the best forms of guaranteed lifetime income. Delaying can add roughly 8% per year in delayed retirement credits up to age 70, which can turn a permanently reduced check into a much larger monthly paycheck. We also connect claiming timing to Medicare premiums, because many people file early simply so Part B and other costs get deducted automatically, then we ask the harder question: is convenience costing you long-term income?

We dig into the details that decide whether delaying makes sense: your health and family longevity, the earnings test if you’re still working (including the 2026 limits), and how taxes can surprise you through provisional income and Social Security taxation thresholds. I also lay out why delaying can reduce future required minimum distributions (RMDs), help avoid unnecessary taxes, and potentially lower Medicare IRMAA surcharges later. Finally, we focus on spousal and survivor benefit planning, because the higher benefit often becomes the survivor’s check, and many couples face a real probability that one spouse lives well into their 90s.

If you want a clear Social Security claiming strategy based on your numbers, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a friend who’s turning 62 or 65, and leave a review so more families can find it.

To learn more about Brad Pistole and the Ozark Retirement Group, please visit www.ozarksretirement.com 

Transcript

Welcome To Safe Money Radio

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Welcome to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Brad is a retirement income and tax planning certified professional, primarily serving clients in the Midwest, but he is sought after nationally for his expertise in helping people secure their retirements. Mr. Pistol is a licensed life insurance professional in approximately 20 different states, and he specializes in working with people who are near retirement and those who have already retired with wealth management, income planning, and asset protection strategies using life, health, long-term care, and annuity insurance products. And now, here to talk with you about securing your retirement, it's your host, Brad Pistol.

Social Security Rules Beat Rumors

Why Brad Trained As An RSSA

Social Security As The Best Annuity

Seven Reasons People Claim Early

The Case For Delaying Benefits

Reason 1 Bigger Monthly Checks

Reason 2 Health And Longevity

Reason 3 Earnings Limit While Working

Reason 4 Taxes And Future RMDs

Reason 5 Building Spousal Bridge

Reason 6 Maximize Survivor Benefit

Reason 7 You’ll Likely Live Longer

Free Report And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Well, hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today for Safe Money Radio. I'm Brad Pistol, a retirement income certified professional, a tax planning certified professional, a certified financial fiduciary, and I'm so grateful to bring this show to you every single week. I've been doing this for almost two decades now. This show's been on the air for more than 16 years. There's been more than 800 episodes. And so whether you're listening for the very first time or whether you're a regular subscriber, a regular listener, we're grateful that you're joining us. And it's in a very, uh, very exciting time here in 2026 to be talking about all kinds of financial planning topics, but more specifically in the last few weeks, we've been talking a lot about Social Security and income planning. Now, as a retirement income certified professional, that's what we focus on is the key ways, key concepts, using all the advantages that Congress and our government gives us to generate guaranteed lifetime income for the future. And Social Security is one of the key areas that we have. And here's the thing I know there's a lot of opinions out there about it, all kinds of opinions about how it's one of the greatest legalized crimes there's ever been. They hold our money, we don't get to invest it the way we want. If we die early, they they keep it. It doesn't pass on to our family. They've already taxed it, they tax it again if you cross certain thresholds. And I get all that. I agree with a lot of that. But here's the thing that doesn't give us a reason to stick our head in the sand and not know the rules and the claiming strategies that will benefit us the most. We simply must do that. Because you see, we're forced to play by the rules of the government. This is a government program. So if we don't learn the rules, then it's on us. If we don't either individually or with the uh combination of working with a financial professional who really knows what they're doing, who's an expert, who's skilled at helping us obtain the maximum amounts, then that's on us. We just listen to coffee shop talk or to someone something that someone said at the 19th hole of the golf course or at some family event or a birthday party or maybe uh a life group member, and hey, you've got to trust all the members of your church, right? So we you can't blame anyone but yourself if you don't get information from the right people. And so I'll just say this in 2026, even though I already had five different financial designations, even though I had studied Social Security Planning extensively through the RICP and the TPCP programs through the American College, I wanted to do a deeper dive into the educational side of Social Security Planning because 11,200 people a day are turning 65 every day, and that's the main group of people that I work with. And so I jumped into a program through the American College in conjunction with the National Association of Registered Social Security Advisors. It was a very intense training. There were five different main course modules, and the final exam was about four and a half hours long. It was a bear, but it was incredible information. And so both myself and Kinsley, another member of our staff, she's our Medicare specialist. We both now are nationally recognized Social Security Analysts. And so it's known as the RSSA program, registered social security analyst. And this past week, if you're joining us for the first time this past week, I shared a show that talked about, discussed the seven reasons for considering starting your Social Security early at, you know, say age 62. Now, if you don't know this, if you're just now looking into Social Security planning, you might not know, but the first age it becomes available to you to file on your own benefit, your own record, is age 62. It could be sooner than that if it's a spousal benefit because of the death of a spouse. But at age 62 is when you can first file for your own benefit. You can delay, however, all the way up to age 70, and people have all these different things in their mind. Oh, if I don't start at age 62, then I have to wait till full retirement age at 67. That's not true. Oh, if I wait till 67 and don't file then, then I have to wait all the way to 70. That's not true. You truly can start anytime. You could start at age 62 in five months. You could start at age 63 in four months. You can start anytime you want. But the key is understanding a lot of factors that go into when and how to file in order to maximize your own specific benefit. And there are so many different things that factor into this. Things like, are you married? Are you the same age? Is a spouse 10 or 15 years older than you, or 10 or 15 years younger than you? If there is a big age difference, maybe it's a second marriage, maybe there's his kids, uh, her kids, and our kids. Did you have a second set of children? And are there minors in your home? And maybe there are people under the age of 16? Or do you have a disabled child that became disabled before the age of 22? There's just all kinds of issues here. Is there disability involved for one or both of the spousal members? Is there longevity in your family? Does everyone die before the age of 70 in your family? Are you still working? Is your Medicare being provided to you because you turned age 65 and didn't have credible coverage at work? Or are you still working and have credible coverage, which could affect when and how you file for your Social Security benefits? I mean, if your head's spinning right now, those were some of the easy ones. Just wait till someone's been divorced two or three times and they've been married more than 10 times every time. Or when, very common in today's world, there is a 15 to 20 year age gap in the partners and there are minor children in the home and all kinds of other issues that can really, really affect this. So here's what I want to do as we get started today. I want you to know our main contact information so that you can reach out to us at any time. And then once we buckle our seatbelt and get rolling, we're gonna just fly on through today because I promised part two this week of the seven reasons to file early at age 62. We're now gonna cover the seven reasons to potentially delay to either full retirement age or all the way out to age 70. And we're gonna start with going back through very quickly the seven reasons for filing early. So here's what I want to do. Know this, again, we are licensed in more than 20 states. I have more than 2,000 clients. I've structured so much lifetime income for people I can't even keep up with it. I've written, personally written more than 2,500 annuities during my career. I know annuities were a bad word way back in the day. I've been teaching about annuities for 20 years now. Annuities are very, very, very popular. Friends, if if this has not shown up on your radar yet, which I know it has, because you probably receive a dinner invitation, seminar invitation, library, uh public event information, invitation every day of your life to be able to go hear about things that financial advisors are doing to provide your lifetime income. And it's all annuity driven. But listen to this. In 2025, it set an all-time record.$461 billion with a B.$461 billion went into annuities.$461 billion. Don't let Fisher or anyone else lie to you anymore about annuities. The big box stores that pay millions and millions and millions of dollars to tell you that annuities are terrible and you should never own one. Even if it's these big public personalities on TV, your Susie Ormonds, your Dave Ramsey's, never ever, ever buy an annuity. Um, I don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. They have some good things to say. They have some terrible, uneducated things to say. They're not financial advisors. They don't know.$461 billion into annuities cannot be wrong. Friends, I'm one person, one blip on the dot, and I personally average about$40 million a year in assets going into annuities for our clients.$40 million. It's not a bad thing. I own eight of them. I have more than seven figures personally in annuities. Why would I do this? Why would I own annuities if it's a terrible thing? Remember, I can do anything I want for myself and get paid on it. Why would I own eight annuities and have more than a million dollars in them? Because it's great for a future financial plan. Now, why am I talking about annuities when I said we're going to be talking about Social Security today? Because Social Security is an annuity. Let me quote Dr. Wade Powell, the author of the Retirement Planning Guidebook, one of the most famous books on retirement planning. In his Social Security chapter, he says, Social Security is one of the best annuities you can buy. What does he mean by that? Well, you see, when you buy an annuity, you can either turn on immediate income, you may never turn on income. It might just be there to preserve and protect your wealth. Or you may defer the income. You may buy it today, take money like cash out of the bank and purchase an annuity with it, or do a 401k rollover and hire a rollover into an annuity, thinking I want to use this on down the road as guaranteed lifetime income. And in today's world, the highest roll-up amount, the roll-up rate, annual return on an income writer, is about 7%. There are a few that are 8%, but most of them are 6, 6.5%, 7%. Why does Dr. Wade Fowl says say that Social Security is one of the best annuities you can buy? Because it's a guaranteed automatic 8% roll-up. 8% every year that you defer. Yes, you could start at age 62 and take a 30% reduced benefit because at your primary insurance age, your full retirement age of 67, you're going to get about 30% less than that if you start at 62. And if you defer all the way out to age 70, it's a 77% higher benefit. It's the best annuity money can buy. So we're going to be talking about all these things on the show today. Let me give you a number. 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. Or just go to Ozarksretirement.com. If you go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on the contact us button, I will personally get back to you. The email is going to come directly to me. I will call you and we'll set up a time to talk about your personal situation. So 866-780-7233 or Ozarksretirement.com. Now as we get started today, let's do this. Let's jump back into last week's show. And very quickly, I'm just going to give you the seven reasons without further explanation, but just the seven reasons why you might want to consider triggering your Social Security benefit early, say at age 62. So very quickly, let's run through the seven reasons. Number one, you're simply ready to retire and you're ready to fund your go-go years. Reason number two, your personal health and family history. Reason number three, spousal benefits. Reason number four, beating Uncle Sam to the punch. Or in other words, tax planning reasons. Reason number five, building a bridge to a bigger spousal benefit. Reason number six for triggering your social security benefits early, the survivor benefit strategy. And reason number seven. The seventh reason you might want to consider claiming your social security benefit early at age 62 is because you simply need the money now for whatever reasons. So, friends, there are the seven reasons why. Now we went into great detail about that, and just know this. I think the best way to listen to this information, even though we love the podcast, and you can go subscribe to the podcast anytime you want by just going to either Apple or Spotify, uh, wherever it is you listen to your podcasts, and and you can subscribe to Brad Pistol Safe Money Radio. But you can also go to YouTube because I put graphs and charts up on the screen when I created these shorts, and the videos are just about seven reasons to file early, seven reasons to delay. Go to YouTube, type in Brad Pistol, type in seven reasons to file early, seven reasons to delay your social security benefit, and then you can watch the actual numbers, the charts, the graphs as I talk about this. So now that we've done that, let's buckle our seat belts and let's jump in. Because as we go through the second part of this, which is the seven reasons to consider delaying your social security benefits beyond the age of 62, we're gonna jump into the meet. We're gonna get into all the reasons behind why I suggest you might want to wait. So, like I said earlier, in a recent video, I discussed seven reasons why you might want to consider taking your social security benefits early. And as promised today, I'm gonna be sharing the opposite side of that spectrum. Seven reasons why you might want to delay taking your social security benefits beyond age 62 when they first become available. This is definitely one of the hottest topics on the planet right now, and that makes sense for several different reasons. First, we are in the peak of what my good friend Dr. Jason Fickner calls peak 65. You see, in 2026, more than 11,200 people are turning 65 every single day. This represents more than 4.1 million people every year. And this is going to continue throughout all of 2026 and all of 2027. And do you know what historically happens when people turn age 65? Well, you probably can guess it. They retire. Age 65, for whatever reasons, seems to be the year and the age in which all these things culminate at the same time. People leave their traditional health insurance plans and they enter the world of Medicare at age 65. This normally happens because they've made the decision to also retire. And when they retire, they lose their credible health insurance coverage at work. And because of this loss of income and insurance and life transition, many people decide to go ahead and trigger or claim their Social Security benefits to help pay for these monthly Medicare premiums and to help supplement their income. Now, many of you have probably never thought about this until you turn 65 or were about to turn 65 or retire. But do you know how most people pay for their Medicare premiums? You remember, this is what starts at age 65. And part A is free, but B, C, and D are not free most of the time. You have to pay for it. How do people pay for this? Well, they have this expense deducted from their Social Security benefit. And what happens if you haven't triggered your Social Security benefit before you start Medicare? Well, that's right. And that's the part you haven't thought about and probably don't want to think about. You have to pay those premiums out of pocket. And if you're married, this can mean more than$400 a month in Medicare premiums. And this doesn't include the cost of your Medicare supplements and your Part D prescription drug plans. Now, this can easily add an additional$500 per month in premiums if you're married. Or in other words, for many people, the decision to file for their Social Security benefits early is to avoid the up to$1,000 a month and increase costs that are there because of Medicare, Medicare supplements, prescription drug plans, loss of income, loss of health insurance. And who wants to write checks every single month when you're supposed to be enjoying your golden years? So for many people, they just simply find it easier and less stressful to file early for their Social Security benefit so they can have these costs deducted from their Social Security checks. But here's the question for today's show Is this the best decision for you and your family financially? Now, while this topic is very complicated and often controversial, the correct answer to this depends on your specific situation. And you need to trust me on this. This isn't a decision you need to make quickly. You don't need to make it because you've watched a two-minute TikTok video from some 21-year-old who knows absolutely nothing about this, or because some good friend of yours said that you needed to file as soon as you possibly can. Friends, let me remind you, I'm a registered Social Security Analyst and a retirement income certified professional. I'm also a certified financial fiduciary. As a member of the National Association of Registered Social Security Analysts, I take the time to sit down with my clients to do a complete evaluation of their very specific personal family situation. And then I help them complete a Social Security retirement roadmap that helps them maximize their retirement income. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. And you can always reach out to us at any time if you want to know more information about this, just go to Ozarksretirement.com. On the show today, I'm going to be sharing with you seven very specific reasons why it might benefit you to delay your Social Security benefits beyond age 62. And if you saw my previous video that we've talked about already today, the seven reasons why you might want to claim early, you might be surprised to find out that some of the same reasons for delaying can also be the same reasons for filing early, but it's different situations involving those same reasons. So, how can both be true? Well, because each individual set of circumstances can be a reason to file early, and it could also be a reason to delay all the way to age 70. So I'll explain this in more detail as we get started. So let's jump right into reason number one why you might want to delay your social security benefits beyond age 62. This is a fun one. Number one, bigger monthly checks. This reason is simple. The longer you wait to claim your social security benefits, the larger your lifetime monthly check will be. If you start at age 62, you're gonna lock in a permanently reduced benefit. But what happens if you wait? Your benefit grows by approximately 8% for every year that you wait, all the way up to the maximum age of age 70. So let's look at a real example of this impact and how it could affect you monthly. And that's why I would encourage you, if you're listening right now to the podcast or on radio, to go watch this online where you can see these charts. Delaying Social Security from age 62 to 70 significantly increases monthly income by avoiding early reduction penalties and by missing out on delayed retirement credits. For someone with a$2,000 a month primary insurance amount, which is known as your PIA, at age 67, claiming at age 62 would reduce the monthly payment from$2,000 a month to roughly$1,400 a month. Whereas waiting until$70 would increase it from$2,000 a month up to$2,480 a month. Now again, online you'll be able to see this chart, but I give you an example. Let's say your PIA at age$67 is$2,000 a month. That's the amount you would receive if you waited to your full retirement age. Well, if you start at$62, that$2,000 is only$1,400 a month. At age$63, it's$1,500 a month. At age$64, it's$1,600 a month. At age$65, it's$1,733 a month. At age 66, it's$1,867 a month. At age 67, your full retirement age, like we said, it would be$2,000 a month. At age 68, because of delayed retirement credits and 8% roll up, it would jump from$2,000 to$2,160 a month. At$69, it's$2,320 a month. And at age seventy, it's two thousand four hundred and eighty dollars a month. That's why point number one, the reason number one for delaying bigger monthly checks gives us these key takeaways. Lifetime income. Delaying to age 70 provides a higher monthly income, which is generally better for longevity. If you're going to live past the age of 81 to 82, delaying your benefits could make hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher lifetime income benefits for you and your spouse. Hey, the monthly difference is a big deal. You gain over 50% more in monthly income by waiting to age 70 compared to age 72. It's actually much more than 50%. Waiting until age 70 provides$1,080 per month more than claiming at age 62. That's a 77% increase in your check size. There's inflation protection to consider. Remember, Social Security has things called colas, cost of living adjustments, and they're percentage-based. And so the longer you wait, the larger that cola affects your benefit. It's a larger dollar amount increase each year. Now, as we're going to talk about later in this video, delaying your benefits can also greatly increase your survivor benefits. If you're the higher earning spouse, your higher benefit that you would be receiving at age 70 typically becomes the survivor benefit for your spouse if you pass away first. And this brings us to reason number two that you might want to delay your social security benefit beyond age 62. Your personal health and family history. You see, the truth is your family history, current and past, your health issues, and many other factors can't be ignored. In our previous video about this, why you should start early, we discussed taking a long, realistic look at your family history. And here are some key questions you need to ask yourself. Are your parents still living? And what about your same-sex parents and same-sex grandparents? You see, I share this fact with all of our clients. Men are normally the older partners in relationships and they normally die first. Now, this isn't always the case, but it is often the case. My good friend Joe Jordan recently shared this stat with me. Eighty percent of men die married, and eighty percent of women die single. Now I want you to just think about that for a minute. What happens when a man loses his spouse? He often remarries in less than a year. Sometimes it's in less than three and four months. What happens a majority of the time when a female loses her spouse? She often remains single. That is why eighty percent of men die married and eighty percent of women die single. And even when women do choose to remarry, remember, men are older and they die first, so often when they remarry after losing a spouse, they lose a second spouse and they outlive them, and therefore they die single. Here are some reasons for you to think through these stats. Women account for roughly 67 to 75 percent of the population in nursing homes, while men make up only 25 to 33 percent. For ages 65 to 74, there are 132 women for every 100 men. For ages 75 to 84, there are 246 women for every 100 men. And for those age 85 and up, listen to this one. There are 425 women for every 100 men. With these facts in mind, you need to ask yourself, did your parents or grandparents live past the age of 80? How about age 85 or 90? If you're in your early 60s and you're considering triggering your retirement benefits, your social security benefits, you first need to look no further than your own family members and your history. Are your parents still living? Is one or both of them in their late 80s or 90s? If so, delaying your Social Security benefits is probably in your best interest. And even if that isn't the case, don't ignore these current stats. A 65-year-old man in the United States can expect to live an additional 18.2 to 19.3 years, according to recent data. That means living to age 83 or 85. A 65-year-old female in the United States can expect to live another 18 to 20 years to approximately age 86 or 87. Now, from our previous videos, you've probably learned that it's in your best interest to delay the higher income earner's social security benefit as long as it's possible that their life expectancy is going to be 82 or older. And for many people, this is going to be the case for one or both partners. Predictions about life expectancy are fairly accurate. If you have reasons to believe that you or your partner will live into your 80s, then delaying your benefits beyond age 62 to your full retirement age of 67 or even all the way to age 70 can pay off big time for you and your family. Now I know this is a lot of information, so we're going to take a quick break here, but those are just the first two reasons why you might want to consider delaying. And know this: you can reach out to us anytime. 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. Or just go to Ozarksretirement.com. Click on the contact us button and say, hey Brad, I've been thinking about retiring. I've been thinking about triggering my Social Security benefits. There are so many different options out there. And I really want to sit down with an expert who knows this stuff inside and out. And I would like to look at the free report that you do regarding Social Security Planning. In our Social Security Retirement Roadmap software, we will be able to put in your information and your spouse's information, and it will generate a report that will show you the top four ways to file the maximized highest lifetime benefit and then option A, B, and C. Maybe the maximized benefit won't work because of your health and your family history and options that are there. So you'd want to choose A, B, or C. But you will see the numbers, you'll see the math on paper, and there is no way to deny that factual information. You'll be making an educated decision regarding your guaranteed lifetime income. Remember, Social Security is an annuity. You want at least two annuities in your life when you retire. Three is even better. One annuity is your Social Security payment, you and your spouse, you'll have two of them. You might want an annuity from other assets, rolling over a 401k or an IRA or putting cash into one. And you might be blessed to have a pension, which is also an annuity. The more guaranteed lifetime income you have, the better it is because your other investments can stay invested in the markets. You can chase alpha or higher returns, and you don't have to worry about the monthly lifetime income. But Social Security is the number one retirement asset for 63% of all people. Getting this decision right is important. Call us anytime or go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on contact us for more information. Now let's jump right back in to seven reasons why you might want to delay your Social Security benefit. Remember, reason number one was bigger checks. Reason number two was your personal health and family history. And reason number three is the withholding rules if you're still working. Now you might be thinking, what withholding rules? What are you talking about? Well, if you've ever heard one of the biggest myths about Social Security planning, it's that everyone should file at age 62 no matter what. And you know about those words always, everyone. You always have to look at those. Here's one of the things people say everyone should file at 62 because Social Security is going broke. And you probably won't live past age 75 anyway. So you would be beyond the break-even point to file early. You're not even going to get to the break-even point. Take your money and run. Well, that's why reason number three is a big one. Current retirement income planning statistics suggest that the majority, not the minority, the majority of people simply cannot afford financially to retire at age 62, the first year that your Social Security benefits are available to you. One of the reasons is because of the health insurance benefits that are provided to you through your job. And normally, if one person has a great health insurance benefit, it will also cover their spouse. And when you're in your 60s, as you probably know, if you don't know, just go out and try to test the markets. Try to find out what it would cost to cover the health insurance for two people in their 60s. It might be$1,000 a month, it might be$1,500 a month. It is based on your income and whether or not you qualify for certain subsidies or benefits. And so here's the thing: with health insurance being a big reason, if you've got a great job with great pay and your health insurance benefits are covered for you and your spouse, you might not want to stop that current plan. If you plan on working your current job or a part-time job until you reach eligibility for Medicare at age 65 because of the health insurance benefits, then you need to consider the withholding rules for Social Security before you go out and file. In 2026, Social Security beneficiaries under their full retirement age of 67 can only earn up to$24,480 per year, or in other words, about$2,000 a month before their benefits are going to be reduced. Now you heard me correctly. This is something called the Social Security Earnings Limitations, and this is how it works. From age 62 all the way up to the year of your full retirement age, if you continue working and you exceed$24,480 per year in earned income,$1 for every$2 of your benefits will be deducted or withheld from your Social Security benefit. Now, in the year in which you reach full retirement age,$1 in benefits will be deducted for every$3 that you earn over$65,160, counting only earnings before the month you reach full retirement age. In the month in which you reach your full retirement age, there is no longer an earnings limit. You can make any amount you want and still receive benefits. So to recap really quickly, from age 62 all the way to full retirement age, it's$1 for every$2 if you exceed$24,480, about two grand a month. All the way up until the year that you turn full retirement age, it's$1 for every$3 if you earn over$65,160. And many of you do. And then the month in which you turn your full retirement age, it's going to be lifted. But here's the thing if you plan to continue working beyond age 62, you will need to pay attention to these earning limitations. Earnings above these limits will result in the temporary withholding of your benefits, which will be repaid later. But for many people, continuing to work gives them another reason to delay their Social Security benefits, to wait for the larger benefit that they're going to receive at their full retirement age. And this leads us to reason number four why you might want to wait. Lowering future RMDs and unnecessary taxes. Now, what's an RMD? Required minimum distributions that come with tax-deferred plans. Social Security benefits aren't automatically taxed like your paycheck was. Whether or not you pay taxes on them depends on what your total income is from many other sources. Social Security uses something called provisional income, which is your taxable income plus half of your Social Security benefits. If the total is under$25,000 for a single person or$32,000 for a married person, then your Social Security is probably going to be completely tax free. But if you exceed these amounts, between 50% and up to as much as 85% of your Social Security benefits can be taxed. If you trigger your Social Security benefits early, before your full retirement age, you might also need to supplement your income from some other source, like a 401 or an IRA. And this income would be 100% taxable because it's coming from a tax-deferred account. Now, when this happens, it creates additional and often unnecessary taxation. One major reason for delaying your Social Security benefit is to avoid unnecessary taxes. Who likes taxes, especially when they're unnecessary? It allows you to start supplementing your retirement income now by taking distributions from those tax-deferred accounts like 401ks and IRAs, and this allows you to accomplish several things. So just think about this. Because you're working with a tax professional, someone like me, you go, hey, this isn't just about claiming my Social Security benefits. This is about not how much I make, but how much I keep after paying taxes that counts. And so I'm going to pay attention to this. I'm still working, I've got good income, or I've got all this money saved up in these tax-deferred accounts. I'm going to keep delaying my Social Security the best annuity money can buy, according to Dr. Wade Powell. I'm going to let that roll up at 8%. And instead, here's where I'm going to go take my distributions from. My 401ks and my IRAs. Yes, I know those distributions are taxable, but why am I doing that now? Because, number one, it allows you to pay taxes today at historically low tax rates. It allows you, number two, to reduce future RMDs, required minimum distributions, which would increase your future taxation at age 73 or age 75, depending on the year you were born. It number three also allows you to delay and therefore greatly increase your future lifetime Social Security benefits. Remember, if you've got money in IRAs and 401ks and you're trying to decide, should I trigger my Social Security now and take it because I might not get it and let my RMDs or my tax deferred accounts roll up, remember, those accounts are going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And who's your joint owner on those tax-deferred accounts? Uncle Sam. The bigger they get, the bigger the taxes get. And when you do turn age 73 for anyone born before 1960, or age 75, anyone born after 1960 or later, those required minimum distributions will start being forced out. They will be 100% taxable, and they will snowball and be much bigger if you defer all the way till then. And then remember, you have a massive tax problem. You will be taking your Social Security benefit. Your spouse will be taking your Social Security benefit. You're going to have taxable distributions you can't stop from those tax-deferred accounts. These things are going to affect your Medicare premiums. It could create IRMA, income-related monthly adjustment amounts, the stealth tax, the surcharges. You could have all kinds of issues by triggering your benefit early and deferring your tax-deferred distributions. It might be better in many cases to reverse that trend. Let your Social Security benefit delay and continue to roll up at 8%. Start drawing down those tax-deferred accounts and pay taxes now while taxes are lower. Building a bridge to a bigger spousal benefit. As we've talked about on other shows, when you claim your Social Security benefit, you're entitled to your own benefit or up to 50% of your spouse's benefit, whichever is higher. But there are several rules that determine what that specific amount is going to be. Remember, if you or your spouse take benefits early, you are permanently reducing the spousal benefits that will be available. But delaying these benefits can help you build a bridge to a higher spousal benefit in the future. Now, this often involves something called a bucket strategy. And Dr. Michael Finca, Dr. Wade Phoe, Dr. David Blanchett, people that we've had on the show many times talk about this in all of their research. Building a bridge to a higher spousal benefit involves using personal retirement savings like we just talked about, 401ks and IRAs. And you do this to cover your living expenses, which allows one or both spouses to delay their Social Security benefit. By delaying, especially the higher earnings spouse's benefit, you increase that benefit by 8% for every year beyond your full retirement age all the way up to age 70, which directly increases the maximum potential spousal benefit to 50% of the higher delayed benefit. Now, if you claim your benefit before your full retirement age, the spousal benefit will be reduced. We've shared this. It's something called the spousal reductions benefits chart in several of our videos. So just go to YouTube, type in Brad Pistol, type in Social Security if you watch the reasons for taking it early. I put that spousal benefits reduction chart in there so that you can see. But here's the bottom line: if you have significant savings in personal retirement accounts like CDs, 401ks, 403Bs, IRAs, or the best yet, Roth accounts, then you could take distributions from those accounts using a bucket strategy, and this will allow your personal and survivor benefits to keep increasing and rolling up at 8% per year. As a retirement income certified professional, I closely follow the research of Dr. Wade Fowle, the creator of Retirement Researcher. In his book, The Retirement Planning Guidebook, there's an entire chapter on Social Security, and he clearly maps out the benefits of using the bucket and delayed crediting strategy. And like I said earlier, he calls Social Security the best annuity money can buy. This book would be well worth your read. Now, let's take a quick break before we get into the last two reasons for delaying your Social Security benefits. And just know this: if you need our help, just call us at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. Or go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on the contact us button. Okay, friends, we're now all the way up to number six. Reason number six for why you might want to consider delaying your Social Security benefits. And reason number six is simple maximizing your survivor benefit, not spousal benefit, the survivor benefit. You see, when the first spouse passes away, you will retain the highest of the two retirement benefits. Or in other words, if your spouse passes away first and they had the higher benefit, you're going to keep their monthly benefit and lose your own. So I've got videos about this on YouTube. Just go to YouTube, type in the reasons for filing or delaying. You'll be able to see the following chart that I'm talking about. But it's going to show the age of the survivor and the percentage of the benefit they're going to receive based on when they when they died or when they passed away and the survivor benefit when those benefits are elected. And it's very important to understand the chart. The survivor benefit increases every month that you delay claiming between age 60 and your full retirement age. The maximum reduction is fixed at 28.5% for those who claim at the earliest possible age. And remember, survivor benefits can be claimed once the surviving spouse reaches age 60. It could also be age 50 if you're disabled. But if you do claim that early, it's going to be reduced by 28.5% because you filed before your full retirement age. And this is very important to note. If your late spouse claimed their own retirement benefits early, your survivor benefit may be further reduced by something known as the widow's limit, which generally ensures you receive no more than what they were receiving at the time of their death. So, in contrast to this, if the deceased benefit or the deceased worker waited until their own full retirement age to claim their benefit, the survivor benefit includes delayed credits. So the longer the higher income earner waits to claim their own benefit, the higher the survivor benefit will be for their family. There are so many decisions and factors that come into play when it's time for one or both to file for their benefit. And the survivor benefit is a big one, especially if there's an age difference and you think that one of the two spouses might live another 20, 25 years after the death of the first spouse, when and how you file is such a big, big deal. This is your family lifetime income we're talking about. And now, friends, this takes us to reason number seven to claim your social security benefits. Later, after the age of 62. Here's the reason. You're probably going to live longer than you think. You see, there's a four-letter word in our vocabulary that never lies, and that word is math. Math simply does not lie. And with the endless numbers of possible combinations for when and how to claim your Social Security benefits, it can be overwhelming. That's why we're doing shows like this. But one thing is for certain in 2026, with modern technology and modern medicine, with things like the emergence of GLP1s and other weight loss drugs, people are losing weight and they're getting in better shape. There's education about healthy eating and living longer. And these things are changing the life expectancy tables and statistics. In 2026, male and female life expectancy is increasing, not decreasing. If you are a married couple who has lived to the age of 65, there is a 50% chance that one spouse will live to age. Are you ready for this? 93. I want to repeat this. If you're a married couple who has lived age 65, there is a 50% chance that one of you are going to live to age 93. And remember, the highest Social Security payment is the one that will pass on to the surviving spouse. So before you run out and claim both of your benefits at age 62, because every dog and pony show under the sun said you need to do that, you need to think about the financial impact of one spouse living to age 90 and beyond on a permanently reduced benefit. That remember, if you filed at age 62 instead of age 70, it is a 77% lower benefit that they're going to live on for the rest of their life. This can literally mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in lifetime income benefits for you and your family. Now, we realize that these decisions are very important and they often involve emotional decisions based on when a spouse died or a parent or a grandparent or all other kinds of things involving your own family. I understand that. This is why we've chosen to specialize in this part of financial planning. Two of our team members here at the Ozarks Retirement Group are registered Social Security Analysts. Friends, if we can help you in any way by running a customized Social Security Claiming Strategy report, just let us know. Call us at 866-780-7233 or go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on the contact us button and request a free financial consultation. I will personally reach out to you. Well, I'm about out of time, and I would like to thank you for listening to Safe Money Radio. If you're serious about your financial future, give me a call, and together we'll get your retirement savings on the fast track to accumulation while reducing exposure to market losses. Thanks for listening, and until next time at the same time, I'm Brad Pistol, reminding you to stay safe so you can step into a secure future.

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You've been listening to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Find out how to contractually guarantee that your hard-earned money is safe while avoiding market loss so you can have the retirement that you deserve. Call Brad Pistol now for your complimentary Safe Money book and Safe Money Information Kit at 866-780 Safe. That's 866-780-7233.

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The preceding information does not represent tax, legal, or investment advice. Surrender charges apply to base contracts. Optional lifetime income benefit writers are used to calculate lifetime payments only and are not available for cash surrender or in a death benefit unless specified in the annuity contract. Fees may apply. Guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance company. No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with a qualified and licensed professional. Obviously, by calling us now, you are just taking the first step towards protecting your retirement. It's important that you read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase decision. Rates and returns mentioned on this program are subject to change without notice.