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Welcome to Financially Fluent with Ray Godleski from Southeast Wealth Partners, LLC. Whether you're already retired or planning for the future, navigating financial advice can be overwhelming. This podcast cuts through the noise, bringing real insights from experts who specialize in every aspect of a successful financial plan—including how to adapt when things don’t go as expected. Join us as Ray Godleski answers audience questions and shares actionable strategies—not just empty clichés.
Ray Godleski 00:00
Music. Welcome to financially fluent with Ray Godleski of Southeast Wealth Partners. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate your financial journey with greater ease and efficiency. Hey, good morning, Cindi, thanks for joining me today on the next episode of financially fluent. How is your week going so far? It is a great week. How about yours? It's a good week. We are recording this on the last day of April, but from a market perspective, we've seen a very bad start, and then things have kind of improved a lot the second half of the month. The weather this April has been fantastic, yes, not too hot, not too much rain, a little rain, and I haven't seen pollen in like, two weeks. How about you?
Cindi 00:45
Yes, it's been picture perfect. So it's been good,
00:49
all right. Well, what are we doing today?
00:52
We are going to talk about Social Security benefits. Awesome.
Ray Godleski 00:55
I thought we might. We've had a couple of questions come in and answered those, some with clients, some with people that are kind of just on our our network, if you will. And so it just been on my heart that, like, Okay, we gotta talk about Social Security, because it's a big deal. Yes, you know. I mean, what are you hearing? So,
Cindi 01:17
um, you know, I've heard, you know, you should do this or you should do that, but I think it's really more unique to a person's own situation, isn't it? Ray, Oh, absolutely.
Ray Godleski 01:28
It seems like, yeah, people, I run into people and I say they use the word, always with Social Security and almost with dating and financial planning, always is a word that probably shouldn't be used a whole lot. It's so specific to, you know, someone's situation. So when someone says you should always do it on early, you know, Social Security's not gonna be around. I'm gonna die at 70. No, someone's like, always wait till 70 you get the most you can. So hopefully today we'll be able to kind of get into some of those details. Yes,
Cindi 02:04
and I know you always like a good trivia question, so I've got one for you, but I think we save that to the end and we kind of just jump right into Social Security right now. Yeah,
Ray Godleski 02:15
you're you're getting the W quite well. I do like trivia, but yeah, let's get right into the heart of today's discussion, and we'll hold off that tribute towards the end. That will be fantastic.
02:26
Okay, let's do it.
Ray Godleski 02:28
Alright? So I think one of the things you know, we talk about Social Security is, who's eligible for Social Security, right? And, yes, how are you eligible? What are those benefits? So we'll put a link in the show notes today about it, but essentially, to be eligible off of your earnings record, someone needs 10 years of of working where they're contributing to a social security that's kind of how you become eligible off your own working record. Now that's your own working record. You could also be eligible off a spousal benefits, survivor benefits, and even disability falls under the kind of that Social Security umbrella.
03:10
You know, those are, those
Ray Godleski 03:11
are how someone gets eligible. Like, say, there's a little more details around it, but essentially, if you've worked a combined 10 years, you would be eligible off your homework, okay,
03:20
how do they calculate your benefit? Right? So
Ray Godleski 03:23
the calculation, I will say, is a little bit complex. And so there's a acronym, because, you know, in our industry, we have nothing but acronyms, so we have an alphabet soup of stuff. And P i A that's primary insurance amount. That is the calculation. And essentially, it's going to take your top 35 earning years. So when you look at your statement, which you would go to, ssa.gov, to download statement, 35 years of earnings is going to be how they use that calculation?
Cindi 03:55
Okay, okay. And how would someone know what their Pia is.
Ray Godleski 04:02
So on there that primary insurance amount you take those 35 years. So it's important to understand is, let's say, you know, in the 90s, someone made, you know, $100,000 or something like that. And on their statement, it shows $99,000 that's because they may have been a cap of how much they could put in the Social Security back then. But what's good is it's tied to inflation. So if you think about what $99,000 was back then, it's now worth more. So they do inflate your how much you put in with inflation. And for folks that are high earners, they're they're getting taxed more on your social security at at a higher income levels. So I think today's in 2025 I believe it's like $176,000 if you're making that much more, all of it's kind of being taxed for Social Security. So the other thing to remember with the. This is, let's say a person didn't work for a decade, didn't work for two decades, right? And they pull up their their statement, and they're like, Wow, I got nine years of history. I got no benefit off my own record. I just need to get another, you know, another year in, or another four quarters in to get to that level. So you have your own Pia, also you could replace those let's just or let's say someone's been working for for 25 years, right? Or even say 32 years. Let's say somebody's worked for 32 years, they got some zeros on there. Now they can keep working and replace those zeros with actual social security benefits, and you can increase your estimate that way. Now the flip side would be, what if somebody, because we look at your statement, it is a benefit statement, it's estimated, right? So if someone is, say, 58 and now they're not working. They're like, You know what? I'm done working. I'm not going to work any longer. And they don't contribute to social security anymore. It's possible that their earnings could be reduced based upon their earnings record. You just have to look at it to see if that estimated benefits gonna be up or down by Okay,
Cindi 06:22
um, you, you mentioned something about taxed. So is it true that your Social Security benefit is taxed even if you are fully retired?
Ray Godleski 06:34
Yes, yes. It wasn't always the case, but it's been that way for a long time now, and so that's one of those things that people aren't super happy about when they first learn this information. But essentially, 85% of your Social Security will will be counted towards your income, therefore tax now there's there's certain thresholds there where your social security isn't taxed. We're only taxed at 50% but a lot of people have enough earnings coming in where, if I want to put a nice spin on it, only 50 or 15% of your Social Security income would actually be tax free. Therefore the other 85% of that income would be tax the thing, what we're not saying is it's not an 85% tax rate. No, it just means you're counting that income there whatever your effective, you know, whatever your rate is. So if you're top rates at 22% then that may be your actual tax rate on the Social Security income. I'll say one other thing too. If someone has turned their social security income on prior to being full retirement age. You know, there's something called an earnings test. So it's really important to know what that level is. If you're you know, if you're out there making $35,000 and you've turned on your Social Security, you know you're going to get a reduced benefit based upon the earnings test, in addition to turning it on early, just something for things people to watch out for. Okay, um, well,
Cindi 08:09
this might be a good time for a little Q and A part of the episode. What do you think?
08:14
Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, alright,
Cindi 08:16
here we go. Um, a couple has a Social Security Question, and for the privacy, we're going to just change their names, Daniel and Danielle, just to keep privacy. Here we go. So I Daniel reach full retirement age March of this year, 2025, and my wife is older than me, but she has not turned on her social security yet. She was born in June of 1956 when Danielle turned full retirement age, her benefit would only have been $900 a month based on her record. So we decided not to file yet. I am still working full time, making six figures per year, and I still have a mortgage, and we also help out our grandkids financially. I recently had a term life policy, so I'm sorry the term life policy expired, so now I've applied for a guaranteed life insurance policy. So I am thinking of going ahead and filing for my Social Security benefit to help pay for this life insurance policy. Someone told me, my wife should file right behind me, because she would get about $1,900 per month. Since mine should be about $3,800 per month. Is this true, right?
Ray Godleski 09:33
So this is something I've heard about, and so in this scenario, what they were thinking was just let her benefit grow while he was still working to come to find out in this situation, you know, he just turned full retirement age, and so he goes ahead and files for Social Security, getting that 3800 a month. Mm, hmm, yes. She would then need to file, and she's gonna get 900 bucks a month. She's gonna get $1,900 a month. So this scenario, person was thinking, you know, she's only gonna get 900 bucks a month, but in reality is she'll be able to get what's called a spousal benefit. So it's really important to understand how spousal benefits work. And so general prescription here again, we're not giving advice for everyone on this, but in this scenario, it works out really nice that he would file at full retirement age. She's actually already well past full retirement age. So in a sense, you don't want to delay that at all. You're just missing out on some money. So spousal benefits, you get about half of what your spouse will be collecting unless your own record is more than you wouldn't, right, you're going to get, you're going to get at least half or more based upon, you know, your own working record. So essentially, what happens here is Daniel files, and that kind of unlocks the door for the spousal benefit. So I have seen this kind of situation where maybe Danielle, maybe she had been collecting 900 bucks a month maybe, you know, she's below the earnings test, or not even working right. So she could have been getting $900 a month all along, and then when he files that unlocks the door for to get the spousal benefit. I call it a bump up and go for 900 bucks a month to the $1,800 a month. Now, the other thing I'll say on this is he mentions about, you know, life insurance. Mm, hmm, yeah. It sounds like you had a term insurance that expired, getting a permanent life insurance policy. Sometimes that could be a on a universal life or a whole life. Chassis could be either one of those. And so in his situation, he's probably getting one of those where you apply, you know exactly how much you're putting in. You get a guaranteed death benefit on the other side, if you will. And then some of those policies let you have more than just the death benefit. You might be able to use it for chronic illness or long term care, use that death benefit while you're alive. So let's say, for example, we had $500,000 death benefit. Might be able to get out $10,000 a month for, you know, long term care or some kind of chronic illness, and that would reduce the death benefit, but you be able to use it while it while you're alive. So, you know, that's not necessarily a bad strategy at all. And of course, the those benefits are are tax free. And the other thing I'll say about that is, you know, when someone passes away, eventually you're no longer in the married filing joint tax bracket. A lot of people in this industry would call that a widows or widowers tax penalty. So anytime you're planning, or maybe a different scenario, maybe two people have similar social security benefits, and now that Social Security benefit has dropped off. Mm hmm, you've basically lost half of your your Social Security income, right? So having some type of other kind of benefit kick in, such as life insurance, could be a smart thing to do, okay?
Cindi 13:11
But going back to Daniel and Danielle, since she delayed and didn't collect right away, they have missed out on some social security benefits that they could have collected, right? That's right, bumped up because with the spousal filing,
Ray Godleski 13:27
yeah, that's right, that's right. And so sometimes what may happen is, let's take this example, and let's say it's been five months past his full retirement age. So what he could do in that scenario, instead of missing out on five months of benefit, you can, you can do a retroactive filing. Go ahead and file retroactively, go back to his full retirement age, and she would do the same thing, so they're not missing out on money. So you can go back six months when you file. As a matter of fact, this scenario, I know of another person that was 72 and never filed just thinking that the benefit would keep growing. Mm, hmm. And it doesn't, right, it only grows to 70, so anything past 70 isn't helping you. But in that scenario, the person that's maybe a 72 to file is really just missed out. They can still file go back six months. You know, get get that much. So the furthest somebody would want to go is 70 and a half file go back six months to get the benefit. So, yeah, good question about that. I do want to point out too, though, back, going back to the previous Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, what if he waited till 70? Mm,
14:46
hmm, okay. I was going to ask you that,
Ray Godleski 14:49
so beat you to it. So let's just say he waits till 70 to file. Why would he do that? Well, maybe he got the client for life insurance. Maybe he's. Hmm, way too long is that health episode. Can't even get life insurance. So you might think about, you know, if you wait till 70 to get it, and what that does is, yes, his benefit, essentially, is 8% more per year of waiting. So let's just say he was 67 so 24% more benefit at age 70, and then from a survivor standpoint, you know? Well, let's first go this way. Danielle is still only going to get half of what he would get at full retirement age. So age 67 that's her benefit, spousal benefit. But then should he predecease her passes away, her benefit goes to what his benefit is at age 70, so that might be a reason to get it. And those are called delayed retirement credits, if someone waits till age 70 to get it. And in that scenario, I'm not recommending that at all. I think we run through some numbers, we'll find out it's better in our situation to get it at 67 just so she can go ahead and start collect, because she's not going to be able to collect that bigger benefit until he files. So in that scenario, you know, waiting to 70 might not be might not be best. Okay,
Cindi 16:15
well, you talked about that 8% more increase per year. So in that scenario, is that guaranteed?
Ray Godleski 16:23
Yes, I mean, according to Social Security, right? It is guaranteed. That's how it's been for a long time. But certainly, you know, folks need to be aware. You know, Social Security is in a situation where it may not be solvent forever it will be. But you know, somebody that's in their 30s might think differently about Social Security versus somebody that's already called somebody that's already collecting. It seems like there's a political will, if you will, to keep things going for those already collected well,
Cindi 16:50
and it sounds like to find the right strategy. It's going to be very unique for each person in their situation. It's just it's very unique to each person. It's not going to be the same all across the board?
Ray Godleski 17:01
Yeah, definitely. You know, there's a lot of online calculators. They do these break evens. And I just, I don't see those as being the best answer necessarily. If you go to a social security office, they're not going to give you advice to your specific situation. They're going to try generic and generalized? Yeah, yeah. They're just they can't they can't give you advice. They can try to tell you how the rules work, and it's possible they don't give you the right answer. I hate to say that, but depending on the office and the person, you may not get the right answer. Oftentimes, you may even be advisable to ask for a technical expert. Most time, my office will have that. So sometimes you gotta go there, and then there's there are financial advisors that understand this well, there's some that maybe don't. So I do encourage people to get with an advisor that's got a lot of experience on this topic,
Cindi 17:55
as you do. Thank you. So what if someone has already filed a claim for benefits, and they had a meeting with you and had a conversation, and we need to change some things. They change the mind. Can anything be done?
Ray Godleski 18:12
Yes. So if someone files and then, you know, who knows? Maybe they were, maybe they filed a 62 and then they've got more information. They're like, Oh, you know, that's a huge reduction in my benefit. As long
Cindi 18:26
as it hasn't been 12 months, they can, they
Ray Godleski 18:30
can do a kind of a one time to do this in your lifetime. If you contact Social career, say, my bad. I didn't mean to do it right. And so you, but you got to put all the money back. And then, once you do that, then you can wait and then, and then you can decide later, hey, I want to wait till I'm 65 or I'll wait till I'm, you know, 67 full retirement age, or I'll wait on seven. Even you can do it one time.
Cindi 18:55
Okay, so you're claiming for 10 months of Social Security benefits, and you need to change your mind. You need to pay back. Yeah, 10 months, something to keep in mind, but at least you have an option, right?
Ray Godleski 19:07
That's right, yep, yep. It's it's not too late. If it hasn't been 12 months, I
Cindi 19:11
think we should answer the other question that came up earlier this year about the person asking about the benefit of her ex husband's record, right?
Ray Godleski 19:19
Yeah. So in that scenario, we met someone that she was divorced, she was older than her ex, and she filed early based upon what she heard at a seminar. Now I don't know what you know. I don't know if there's just misunderstanding or what happened, but she heard it from a seminar, and in her mind, she was going to file a 62 and then later on, filing her ex husband's record to get a bigger benefit. Unfortunately, it had already been more than 12 months, because she actually had quite a bit of money in IRA. She had quite a bit. Of money in what called non qualified asset or taxable accounts. So she actually had the resources to do the whoops, let me fix that, but it's been past the 12 months. It's been about 15 months. Weren't able to help her in that scenario. And so what we're trying to say there is she can still get a little bit of a bump based on her ex husband's record, but she's going to get it reduced because she filed early. So we really want to be careful in in those situations. Now, one thing she can do, and don't know, you know, this is going to be right for her or not, but what she could do is, when she reaches full retirement age, she could then, at that point, well, first of all, full retirement age, you can be working, make as much money as you want. You get no reduction if you know benefit because you're working, there's no more earnings test. So that's one thing, but she could, at that point, at full retirement age, say 67 she could stop her benefit right then, if she wanted to use other assets or income, and wait till 70 or 6869 to get a bigger paycheck. Maybe she feels better about her health. She's got longevity in her, in her mindset, and so in that scenario, it won't be a full replenishment, but at least you'll get the delayed retirement credits. In that situation, waiting from 67 to seven so she could do that. Okay, um,
Cindi 21:26
but just a little follow up with the ex husband and wife. How can if they're not married anymore, how do they claim, like the Daniel and Daniel situation, where they were a married couple, and she was going to her benefit was going to bump up because of his. But if the exes are not married anymore, do they still get that same benefit Right?
Ray Godleski 21:49
Right? So it's based upon your age. You wouldn't want to if you're going to claim on your ex spouse, you want to do it based on your age and that situation versus what your ex spouse's age is. So yeah, let me say just a few more things about ex spouses and social security, because some people are concerned, like, wait a minute, I've remarried, and is my ex spouse going to hurt my benefit or hurt my husband or wife's benefit, and it won't. So don't worry about ex spouse, you know, kind of rocking the apple cart of an existing new marriage, if you will. But let's do go over how this benefit works for ex spouses. There's there's certain rules. First of all, the marriage would have needed to last 10 years at least, they would need to be divorced for at least two years. And so let's see what else divorced spouse, right? So they gotta be at least 62 years old, right? So the divorced spouse has to be at least 62 before you're really eligible to claim that benefit. You could not. You can't be remarried either, right? So if somebody remarries and is married, let's say they're remarried, and then they're 60, then you're you're not going to be able to claim that benefit off your ex. But if you wait to act for 60, then you could claim off of it of your ex or somebody was to get married and divorced before the age of 60, that still be something they could be eligible for. And the maximum benefit someone could get in that scenario is 50% spousal benefit off the ex spouse's Pia, oh, and that's only if the person claiming that wants to claim a benefit, that person needs to be full retirement age. So it doesn't really matter so much what your ex spouses is, as long as they're 62 or older, but you need to be full retirement age if you want to get all 50% of what that ex spouse's Pia is. And from a survivorship standpoint, that's important to understand also, if the ex spouse dies and again, he had all the other requirements, you could get bumped up to a full 100% benefit. So the other thing I'll say on this is what you're thinking, well, if I just wait till I'm 70, can I get a bigger benefit off my ex spouse's record? If I wait till 70? No. So once your full retirement age, if that's your scenario, go ahead and claim the ex spouse will benefit. You're going to get any any delayed credits for waiting any longer past that. Important to know. And again, if you're reburied or something like that. Don't worry about the ex spouse messing up your social security. That's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 24:45
And now a quick message from today's sponsor, if you're looking for advice specific to your situation, then take a look at this episode's sponsor, Southeast Wealth Partners. To learn more about their team and approach, go to www.SoutheastWealthPartners.com
Southeast Wealth Partners is a great next step to be Financially Fluent. Okay,
Cindi 25:04
well, do you want to jump into some trivia? Yeah, let's do it all right, I've got just one for you today, and I really think I'm going to get you on this one. Least I'm hoping, yeah, okay, in 1992 the US Men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed The Dream Team, dominated the Barcelona Olympics in three players from that legendary roster who are not Michael Jordan,
Ray Godleski 25:33
oh, my goodness. Okay. I know you have a love for basketball,
Cindi 25:37
so I thought this one would be appropriate for you.
Ray Godleski 25:42
Okay, tell me what I'm right. Okay. David Robinson, yes, okay. Larry Bird Yes. Magic Johnson, yes, yeah, continue.
Cindi 25:56
Charles Barkley, Carl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Scotty Pippen,
Ray Godleski 26:02
Scottie Pippen, oh, my goodness, really. And that was in Spain, if I recall, Barcelona.
Cindi 26:08
Awesome. Alright, well, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to try harder for next time I like, Yeah, I
Ray Godleski 26:15
mean, I like being right sometimes. So that's a good question. I appreciate that. Fantastic. Yeah, we'll do the '96 team next when they were in Atlanta. Yes, hey, great, great episode today. Glad we got to answer some social security questions. We will not limit Social Security one episode. There'll be more on that. I'm sure. I'm sure. Yes.
Cindi 26:37
Well, as we always ask everyone listening to please, Like, Share, Subscribe and talk about this great podcast that you're doing to get it out there to inform everyone, because a lot of good information, and
Ray Godleski 26:50
if you have questions, send it to Ray@SeWealthPartners.com thanks for listening. See ya. Thank you for listening to the financially fluent podcast. Click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available. This communication is for informational
Speaker 1 27:08
purposes only and should not be considered tax legal or accounting advice. You should consult with a qualified tax professional accountant or legal advisor regarding your specific situation before making any financial decisions. Investment advisory services are provided only in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Raise opinions are not based on the specific financial situation of any investor, so they may be unsuitable for some investors. The information on financially fluent does not constitute a solicitation of the sale or purchase of securities. You should consult a professional advisor before executing a security trade or taking any other action based on information contained in this program. Securities and Investment Advisory services offered through Osaic wealth, Inc, Member, FINRA SIPC, mOsaic wealth is separately owned and or other entities and our marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic wealth. In.