My husband and I spend much of our time and mental energy focusing on our jobs, our children, and generally running our household. In a given week, we'll commonly sit down over the weekend to discuss the coming week's schedule -- who will take the kids to different activities, who's going to cook, and what's on the menu.
As such, I'll admit that retirement isn't a topic we sit down to talk about very often. And to be fair, that milestone is several decades away for us, so it stands to reason that we'd spend most of our time figuring out the here and now.
Image source: Getty Images.
But because we're committed to saving and planning for retirement, on occasion, we'll have a discussion about how our investments are doing and what changes, if any, we need to make. We also recently sat down to talk about Social Security, even though we're nowhere close to being able to claim benefits. Here's why.
It's all about being prepared
Because I write about Social Security all the time, I'm fully aware of how the program works. And I know the different methods to use that could lead to higher benefits. I also know there's a possibility that Social Security benefits will be cut in the not-so-distant future, and that needs to be accounted for in everyone's plans.
My husband, by virtue of being married to me, is generally aware of these things, too. But until recently, we didn't really talk about the role Social Security might play in our retirement.
I've always maintained that my retirement plans don't account for Social Security at all. Even though I know benefits aren't going away completely, I don't want to be reliant on them in any way. Rather, I want those benefits to simply serve as extra cash once we're able to snag them.
I realized that my husband has a different view of Social Security. His thinking is that while we should do our very best to save for retirement, we should also give ourselves a break to some degree and allow Social Security to serve as a future safety net.
In fact, the retirement savings target I've had in my head for a long time is higher than the number my husband has in mind. And that's largely because he's inclined to count Social Security income as a retirement asset we can count on, whereas I've never wanted to do that.
Because my husband and I see things a little differently with regard to Social Security, we thought it would be wise to start devising a claiming strategy. Since my husband wants to bank a little more on those benefits than I do, I told him I thought he should aim to wait until age 70 to sign up, and he agreed. Filing at age 70 results in a boosted benefit.
I then told him I didn't want to commit to a specific filing age because I'm expressly trying to not count on those benefits at all. And he was fine with that. In his mind, as long as one of us delays Social Security as long as possible for a raised benefit, it's OK if the other files at an earlier age. This doesn't mean that I will file at an earlier age -- but it's good to have that option.
It's never too soon to plan ahead
For all I know, the rules around claiming Social Security will change between now and when my husband and I are eligible to sign up for it. But the basics of the program are likely to stay the same -- meaning, there will still be an age at which you're eligible for your monthly benefits in full, and there will be financial incentives for delaying your claim. And this means that talking about a strategy ahead of retirement is a good thing to do.
Even if you're years away from ending your career, you may still want to sit down with your spouse and talk about what retirement could look like and what sources of income you'll have access to. And you may want to start thinking about the role Social Security will play in your senior years, as it could influence your approach to building savings.
