Filed Social Security Too Early? Here's What To Do

What do you do if you filed for Social Security benefits too early? In this video I will share with you three things you can do to improve your Social Security benefit, even if you already filed. 1. Stop your benefit and pay back what you received. Now you can only do this in the same year you filed, be advised. Before the 2015 changes you could repay all your benefits, interest free, even if you took those benefits years prior.  Those days are over now.  2. Stop your benefits to begin receiving the increases each year you delay taking them up until age 70,   Say you are 64 and started your benefits at 62.  Because you took your benefits before your Full Retirement Age of 66, your Social Security payment was reduced by 25% of your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). However, if you stop your benefits now, you can still receive increases of 8% each year until you decide to start the benefits up again. No big deal.    Of course, if you do this, you'll need to ask where the income will come to replace the Social Security benefit you no longer receive.  Just keep that in mind.  #3. My favorite strategy is to stop your benefits AND go back to work.  This strategy could double your winnings because the extra year of work may replace a lower earning year in your Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME)calculation.   Remember your AIME is based on your top 35 years of earnings.   Let's say you have a couple years in your AIME when you were making 20k as a dishwasher.   Well if you now you get a job selling cellphones or whatever and make 90k in commissions, not only have you lopped that 20k year off your AIME but you've replaced it with 90k! On top of that because you're no longer receiving benefits you're taking advantage of the 8% a year increase on your total benefits.  A win/win/win scenario here, if you ask me.  Moral of the story: If you took benefits too early, don't fret. There are ways you can "fix" what you've done and be better off for it.  https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/2018-02-09/what-to-do-if-you-filed-for-social-security-too-early