We can’t provide your actual benefit amount until you apply for benefits. And that amount may differ from the estimates shown below because:Your earnings may increase or decrease in the future.Your actual benefits will be adjusted for cost-of-living increases.Your estimated benefits are based on current law. The law governing benefit amounts may change. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time.Your benefit amount may be affected by military service, railroad employment, or pensions earned through work on which you did not pay Social Security tax.
In other words, the SSA assumes that your future earnings will annually be about the same as your earnings in the most recent couple of years. Therefore, as their own cautions highlight, if you expect your future work earnings to change from your most recent years’ employment earnings, your expected Social Security retirement benefits also will change.
Don’t get hung up over expected cost-of-living increases. When we walk you through the retirement number crunching later in this chapter, these increases are incorporated into the analysis. The third point about future benefit law changes is worth considering, so we cover that in detail in Chapter 10.
www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/estimator.html.
Pensions
When putting together your retirement plan, you also want to consider any pensions you have available to you. You may have previously worked for an employer offering pension benefits, or you may currently work for a company with such a plan. Also known as a defined benefit plan, a company pension plan is one that your employer actually is contributing to and investing money in to fund your future pension payments.
In a typical plan, the employer may be putting away about 8 to 10 percent of your salary (this money is actually in addition to your salary, because the money isn’t taken from your income as it would be if you were contributing to a retirement plan such as a 401(k) plan). The money is then invested mostly in a mix of stocks and bonds (as it is in a balanced mutual fund).
The savings happen automatically. Unlike a retirement savings plan like a 401(k), you don’t have to think about your pension plan. You don’t have to cut back on your spending or complete any forms. Your employer is putting away money on your behalf month in and month out.
You don’t experience any investment hassles or challenges. The pension fund manager does all the heavy lifting with regard to investing the money. So there’s no need for you to research or monitor financial markets or investments.
Based on your years of service, your benefits statement will show you how much of a benefit you’ve earned. Your current employer’s statement or the person or department that works with benefits may also be able to show you how your pension benefits will increase based on working until a certain future age.
Investments
The many types of investments you may have are an important component of your retirement plan. These investments may come in various forms, such as bank accounts, brokerage accounts, mutual fund accounts, and so on. Your investments may or may not be in retirement accounts. Even if they aren’t, they still can be earmarked to help with your retirement.
Bank accounts — checking (especially if it holds excess savings), savings, CDs, and so on
IRA accounts
Taxable accounts at brokers and mutual funds
Employer retirement accounts, includingProfit-sharing plansEmployee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)401(k)s, 403(b)s, and so forth
Investment real estate
We provide numerous bits of information elsewhere in this book about how to invest your retirement money as well as where to save it. At this point, you simply need to take an inventory of your current assets and use that information in the “Crunching the Numbers” section to determine where you stand regarding retirement planning.
Your home’s equity
If you’ve owned a home over the years and it has a decent amount of equity in it (the difference between its market value and the mortgage debt owed on it), you can tap into that equity to provide for your retirement. In order to tap into your home’s equity, you have two primary options:
You can sell your home. After you sell your home, you can either buy a less costly one or rent.
You can take out a reverse mortgage. With a reverse mortgage, you continue to live in your home and draw income against your home, which is accumulated as a debt balance to be paid once the home is sold (check out Chapter 8 for more info).
IN GOOD HANDS: KNOWING YOUR PENSION IS PROTECTED
Many people don’t realize how safe their pension benefits actually are. Even if the company goes under, pension assets are held separately and are backed up by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The PBGC is a federal agency created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (also known as ERISA) to protect pension benefits in private-sector pension plans, also known as defined benefit plans. PBGC guarantees basic pension benefits earned, subject to limits, including
Pension benefits at normal retirement age
Most early retirement benefits
Disability benefits
Annuity benefits for survivors of plan participants
PBGC doesn’t guarantee health and welfare benefits, vacation pay, or severance pay. The maximum benefit amount that PBGC guarantees is quite substantial. According to the PBGC:
PBGC’s maximum benefit guarantee is set each year under provisions of ERISA … PBGC guarantees the “basic benefits” you earned before your pension plan’s termination date (or the date your employer’s bankruptcy proceeding began, if applicable) up to legal limits set by Congress.
The 2021 maximum monthly guarantee for a 65-year-old retiree is $6,034.09 for a straight-life annuity and $5,430.68 for a joint and 50% survivor annuity.
The maximum