Fidelity's most recent Couples & Money Study found that 48% of couples disagree on the age they plan to retire, and that 2 of the most common ways people say they want to spend their retirement years—relaxing at home and traveling—are at odds with one another. The study also pointed out that couples who treat planning like a team sport are more likely to feel confident about their plan and more likely to agree on some of the hot-button issues. Be inclusive
Don't leave anything—or anyone—out of your imagined future.
One thing that comes up during the future self-exercise is that people have different ideas about when they want to retire and when to collect social security benefits. As we previously saw, the grandparents’
assessment of Social Security income and the ongoing support it may or may not provide differs from Jackson’s expectations.
Generally speaking, a delay in claiming benefits results in receiving a monthly benefit that is 8 percent higher for each year a person puts off collecting benefits. If your full retirement age (FRA) is sixty-seven years but you postpone claiming benefits until age seventy, The benefit—at least currently—will be 24 percent higher. But that 8 percent increase doesn’t account for the fact that Jackson will miss out on three full years’ worth of Social Security checks. Jackson should
dig deeper to really understand how he may or may not benefit from delaying collecting benefits, just as Jodi should understand the rules for collecting benefits before her FRA.
- Excerpt from "How Not to Tear Your Family Apart"